...to say the 'I'

I have no idea how to use Movable Type, so I'm going to be tinkering with the system for a few days before I go in for a full-blown blog debut (much anticipated, I'm sure, by the approximately two people who would have any interest in reading my blog). But, to test things out, I'm publishing this entry right...now.

UPDATE:
I'm about ready to go public. If you or any of your friends have any webdesign experience, please let me know. I'd like to jazz the place up a bit, make it a little less generic. Thanks.

Way back in April, Capitalism Magazine had two great articles for those of us not particularly well-versed in economics. I held on to the links, and decided they were important enough to post even two months later. Informative, clear, and well-written, these are must reads:
Why Are CEOs Paid So Much?
The Future of Work

Back in middle school, I was on the "executive board" of the student senate three years in a row. One of the responsibilities of the board (one representative from each grade, fifth through eighth) was delivering the morning announcements over the loudspeaker. Each week we rotated segments, one of which was leading the school in the Pledge of Allegiance. Though we had all been reciting the pledge’s familiar cadence since kindergarten, it was not entirely unusual for someone especially tired or distracted to inadvertently skip a phrase, saying, for example, "…and to the republic, one nation…" Firm in my atheist beliefs even at that time, I schemed sometime in the seventh grade to "accidentally" omit the phrase "under God" when my turn came around, wishing just once to declare my patriotism without the religious aspect, which had no meaning for me.

Cox and Forkum have done it again with Unlearned Lessons. It's the cover of The Intellectual Activist's May 2004 issue, and is a beautiful depiction of the modern soldier, restrained from full action.

Go take a look, it's a great drawing.

This is a post I've been cogitating on for a while.

Ray Charles was a singer I grew up with. I can't remember a time when I wasn't familiar with his music--he was one of those artists my brother, sister, and I referred to by first name only. His versions of "Hit the Road, Jack" and "You Are My Sunshine" were two particular favorites of my childhood; later, it was "Georgia" and "Unchain My Heart"; in college, "Am I Blue" and "Come Rain or Come Shine." Now, as I'm writing this, "Old Man River" and "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" seem particularly poignant.

His vocal stylings and ground-breaking arrangements of classic songs alone made him someone to be remembered--forever, hopefully. But his outward appearance added to his art; his full enjoyment of life was expressed in particular in his brilliant smile. CMT has been showing repeats of a Crossroads with Ray Charles and Travis Tritt. At on point, Charles is so delighted that Tritt wants to do a particular song that he rears back on his bench at the keyboard, feet off the ground, head back, huge grin on his face, clapping his hands with joy. At 72 years old, he still experienced--and showed--the pure rapture of a three year-old.

I spent a semester in Paris in the fall of 2002--there were posters up everywhere advertising Charles's impending concert there. I wanted to go, but it didn't work out. Add one to my list of concerts I wish I could have seen.

So, this blog is turning out to be a mish-mash of basically anything I like, which is ok with me for now. Maybe some day I'll fine-tune the theme a little, but for now I just want to try everything.

That being said, here's what I had for lunch today: White bean and red onion salad with lemon-dijon vinaigrette.

Ta-da! And it was yummy, too.

There's much to blog, but since I now know that there are some Swatties reading, I wanted to rush this post to the presses.

One of the books I'm currently reading is Margaret Atwood's newest, Oryx and Crake. It takes place sometime in the future, and describes where one of the main characters (a genius) goes to college:

"Watson-Crick was known to the students there as Asperger's U. because of the high percentage of brilliant weirdos that strolled and hopped and lurched through its corridors. Demi-autistic, genetically speaking; single-track tunnel-vision minds, a market degree of social ineptitude--these were not your sharp dressers--and luckily for everyone there, a high tolerance for mildly deviant public behaviour." (p. 194)

Though graduating has greatly softened my feeling toward it, this passage still reminds me of my alma mater.

CNN (and other news outlets) are reporting that the Pentagon is activating up to 5,600 rarely-used reservists from the Individual Ready Reserves. The DoD's official website provides this definition of the IRR:

Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a manpower pool in the Ready Reserve, primarily consists of: Individuals who have had training, have served previously in the Active component or the Selected Reserve, and have some period of a military obligation remaining. IRR members are in an active status, but do not perform regularly scheduled training.

Sgt. Stryker clears up some myths and Blackfive blasts the media for reporting military matters, such as this one, inaccurately.

Finally, Cox and Forkum, my favorite editorial cartoonists, have a sweet and funny cartoon on the subject.

Tonight's dinner:

Spending time in France taught me that eggs and salad are really, really good together: omelets or scrambled, fillings or none (naturel), next to a good side salad dressed with a simple vinaigrette--mm mm good. Even better, though, is the poached egg over salad, an arrangement that allows the soft yolk to run down over the salad ingredients for a delicious taste sensation. I just bought asparagus yesterday, and I wanted to use this summer delight as well, so I decided to put the two together in a salad.

I was trying to come up with a suitable dressing when I thought about a sauce often used to dress asparagus alone or poached eggs in the popular brunch dish Eggs Benedict: Hollandaise. A good hollandaise is the kind of thing chefs learn in culinary school, not a simple trick that can be tossed off by mere mortals. I made one once before, and it was good, but it was enough work to convince me not to do it again except for a very special occasion. But, I decided to look it up on my favorite foodie website, Epicurious to see if I could incorporate any of the ingredients into a vinaigrette...when I found this mock hollandaise. I made it, altering the proportions a bit to make it lighter (more lemon juice, less mayo, and lemon zest because I didn't have oranges). It turned out a lot runnier and sharper than a normal hollandaise, but still reminiscent of the flavor.

I also made a very simple lemon-garlic dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, pressed garlic, and pepper) so that I wouldn't have to dress the entire salad with the the heavy sauce. I tossed the greens with a light coating of the vinaigrette, composed the rest of the ingredients on top, and drizzled the hollandaise over --and that's what you see above!

Click below for more photos of the process.