MisterNihil.com
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31.5.02No tune, but lots of fun playing. Posted at 12:47 AM So, the next one's called "Thin Mint." I'll save it 'til I actually have something. Now, back to my guitar to see if a tune magically appears at my fingertips. I like my guitar. It's fun. I put it in a Coffin Case that says: "Evil Is Job One" on it. Hoo Ra. Posted at 12:04 AM - - - - - - - 30.5.02So, I was standing at the urinal. I love stories that start like that. I was standing at the urinal, and trying not to look at the other guys there. We don't make eye contact. It's a guy thing. Looking studiously at the wall, I saw that someone had taken a very sharp pointed pencil, and written on the grout between the tiles. This wasn't that nice, pretty grout, where you could write with a normal pencil. This was institutional grout, the kind where the tiles are so close that mold can't grow on it, and hooligans can't write on it. Yeah. The writing, clear once you got near it, said "Guess what." There are moments when I love life so much I almost cry. OK, so realistically, there was probably supposed to be something dirty there. Maybe "Guess what, I peed on the handle," Guess what, I've got herpeez," whatever. It's great, though. All Fate let them get out was "Guess what" before the pencil broke or was too dull to get out clear letters. So, yeah. You have to look for the little things, because the big things are always, always too scary to think about. Posted at 11:52 PM Wow. Life is funny sometimes. I had a moment at the movie theater the other night. last night? Damn. Where does the time go? (as if in answer, a toilet flush from the other room). Posted at 11:49 PM There's only so many ways to say "I'm sorry I'm such a social dunce." I've really got to lean to keep my damn mouth shut when other people are talking. I'm not sure why I can't do it. Maybe I just can't hold a thought in my head for a minute. Maybe I should try that. I'll practice and get back to you. Maybe I'll also practice being nice to my fellow people and letting their opinions count simply by letting them get out into the world. I'm working on it, I'm working on it. One of my coworkers had a "must control fist of death" moment today, directed at me. It was entirely my fault. I'm not tactful enough. If I'd communicated that I'd had the same problem she had, and that the answer was, "if you look on the inside cover of the book, the answer's there" was the answer when I had that problem, I might have made her feel less like I was telling her "Duh. It's the obvious answer." That's not how I meant it. I said it the first way, but I always seem to come across as being too hostile. Grrrr. Oh wait... Posted at 11:47 PM Once More, I says: Happy Birthday Mo!!! Ha HA! OK. Back to your normal lives. Posted at 11:12 PM - - - - - - - 28.5.02Goin' ta see spider man movie at alamo drafthouse north tonight. On a side note: Stupid damned Marvel Comix. I am still so mad at them. I hate that I'm gonna go see their movie. They screwed me (yes, me personally). It should not be legal for a company to, when it goes bankrupt, transfer all of its holdings and money and, essentially, its company, to another company, newly formed, so the people who lose out are the stockholders. They shouldn't be able to leave so many of us poor "True Believer" saps holding a)worthless stock certificates and b)our proverbial collective members in our proverbial collective hands. I can't even communicate how betrayed I feel by that whole thing. I still own the stock, but it currently is worth nothing, and absolutely cannot be unloaded. Dammit. Only gonna see the movie because the Drafthouse rocks and I support any movie theater that will bring you a beer in the middle of a film. And not just a crappy beer in a can or a crappy styrofoam cup, but a Beer. In a Glass. From a Tap. Posted at 8:03 PM I got them ole want-the-OED-but-it-costs-$135-before-my-work-discount blues, baby. Posted at 7:57 PM I'm only gonna say this once, so pay some goddamn attention: Wary (war-e): marked by extreme caution Weary (wir-e):exhausted in strength I just heard a priest on TV say he was tired of having his picture taken with his students at the Catholic high school where he worked. Yeah, he meant he was being careful about how he looked in the pictures so nothing could be construed as being inappropriate. What he said was, he was sick of pictures. w eh r ee cautious w ee r ee tired Learn it. Know it. Damn it. Posted at 7:55 PM - - - - - - - 27.5.02I saw a play at the vortex theater here in town. It's called "The Music of Erica Zann." This is the same place I saw Elytra. Monica, whom I know from work is the stage manager for "The Music of Erica Zann." Posted at 8:03 PM And they were singin' like this: There's a moment gone between us There's a day we can't forget There's something gone inside That's replaced with fake regret I forget who it was who said, I don't wanna be around after I'm dead Well girl you should be made of candy So you could be so sweet and you were so fine and dandy 'til I swept you off your feet I forget who it was who said I don't wanna be around after I'm dead Posted at 7:56 PM Wugga Wugga, Gai Jin. Posted at 7:45 PM I'll start it now, so when Thursday rolls around I will have done it early: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MO!! There. It's blasted across the internet. Posted at 12:49 AM Nearly 24 hours later, I post to say: So dinner changed a little. A trip to the grocery store produced a recipe for barbeque that was so simple as to be elegant in a undenyable way. You just brush olive oil on the top of the meat, grate pepper and salt onto the top, and put it on the grill. I put fresh herbs on one piece of meat and grilled 'em until they were perfect. Yum. These I the served with a steak sauce. The ice cream, I gotta say, turned out wonderfully. I heated a half-pint of heavy cream with sugar and clover honey (from here in town), then steeped fresh basil leaves in the whole mixture. When I decided the basil had set in, I skimmed it off the top, heated for a little while longer to allow the cream to thicken a little, and put the batter on to chill. This I then threw into the ice cream machine, and forgot about until the maching sang. I also took fresh watermellon juice, and cut up strawberries. These I heated with a little fresh lemon juice, about 1/8 cup of sugar and a dash of honey until they were combined. This also I allowed to cool, then froze. The whole thing, however, would have been not-even half as good had two thirds of the incredible Invisible City crew not come over to help. We made Pizzelli, which are an italian sugar cookie from Abruzzi, Italy, more or less. You take 3/4 cup of sugar, and cream in three eggs. Then, you add one stick of melted, cooled butter, 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp vanilla. That's it. Then you put a big teaspoon-full onto a hot pizzelli iron and cook them until they are just golden brown. You put the hot cookies into a bowl (or you use a cone mold. Whatever) and shape them before they solidify. They are mighty keen. A lot like a waffle cone, but more like the triangle wafers you sometimes get on the ends of a sundae. Fresher is better with these, so don't make too many at a time. Halve the recipe for small groups, but you can keep the cookies for a day or so before they start to get mushy. The dough is also not really a keeper as it contains raw eggs and also will dry out into glue. So there you go. Dinner was a success, and nobod who came read the spoiler below, so they weren't expecting lasagne. I do still have the makings for it, though, and I do need to have lunch for the next week... Life. Hoorah. Posted at 12:48 AM There's a child crying somewhere outside my window. I don't know exactly where, I can't place it. It's probably coming from one of my back neighbors. They have kids, and kids make that sound. It keeps rising and dropping, like a siren. Periodically, it will sort of explode into almost intelligible bursts of a cry. I think somebody isn't happy. Ahh, suburban life. Posted at 12:35 AM - - - - - - - 26.5.02DINNER SPOILER DINNER SPOILER DINNER SPOILER OK, so update: I'm planning to try the basil honey ice cream (I've used that combination before but now I'm gonna do it in a cream base. Yum) tonight. I'm thinking about doing Lasagne with white bechamel sauce and crusty bread on the side. Because my friends are so nice, I get to make odd ice creams and they get to try them. Because I like my friends, I'm gonna have a berry ice on the side. I'd better get to the grocery store so I can get started. Life is good. Posted at 1:29 PM - - - - - - - 24.5.02In the interest of keeping this random: The real beauty of having an ice cream maker is just being able to throw stuff in it and see what comes out. I've found that instant pudding, one of the great inventions of this century, makes a neat after-dinner snack when put in my machine, and the whole process takes about half an hour, counting freezing. However, that probably doesn't count as "real" ice cream. If you want to do it "right," you have to do an egg custard with a mix of heavy cream and milk. You cook that over low to medium heat, adding sugar until it seems like custard (measurements will follow, on a later post). Then, add vanilla, the seeds from inside a vanilla bean and a dash of paprika or chili powder (really a smidge. A little less than a quarter teaspoon is even a little much. You just want the hint of spicy behind all the sweetness. You shouldn't be able to taste it). Then, you strain that into a bowl, and freeze it in your ice cream machine. The super easy way to do that, without having to make custard, is to combine about 2 cups heavy cream, 2 cups sugar (to taste, really. Go lighter if you want, or substitute honey, unsulphured molasses, maple syrup, or whatever. This is the sweetener. It can be anything sweet), about a teaspoon of vanilla, and spices as you please. For the spices: You can put pretty much anything in ice cream. It's up to you. Cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg will add an autumnal flavor; vanilla bean or more extract will make vanilla; Basil will be odd, but not unpleasant, particularly with honey; I'm still looking for the right peanuts for the simulation of the short-lived HEB creation with red pepper and peanuts. The easier one, I don't know why, is called the Philadelphia recipe. The other is called, surprise surprise, frozen custard. If you want chunks in your ice cream, add them after the mixture in the machine has started to solidify. You can make a cookie dough (try it without eggs), use chocolate morsels or shave a bar, or put in peanut butter mixed with sugar and a tiny bit of flour to dry it out. Whatever. Have fun with it. It's ice cream. As for the machines I have made such a big deal about: Most of these mixtures take a while to freeze. This is a problem for most machines you buy in department stores. I've owned three of them, and one better one. I'll now explain the difference. The ice cream makers you buy in the store have no refrigeration in them. You have a bowl, usually plastic with metal inside with walls full of a liquid, which you freeze, then attatch a mixer to the top to keep the batter from forming a solid lump of frozen dairy. These work best when you put the cream mix into the freezer before you put it in the machine. Bring the temperature down drastically, until it is just on the edge of freezing. Then, add it to the ice cream maker bowl, and start the paddles working. And that's fine. However, the machine I use now is Italian, and has a refrigeration unit on it. You just put the ice cream in a metal bucket, flip the cool and mix switches, and walk away until it plays Fur Elise (It needed a siren to say it was done, and why not a tune like those that ice cream trucks play. It makes sense). You can use either type you want. I found the "freeze the bowl" types to be frustrating. The problem with the refrigeration one is that no chain department store carries it, small chef supply stores can't afford to keep it in stock, and shipping a 25 pound monster (I have the smaller one) is a little expensive. Of course, there's the version with the ice and rock salt, powered by arm strength. Those will always be my favorite, but not everybody has the time or the biceps to operate them. They work on the same principles as the other two, but you need to have a ready supply of ice near you for them. They still produce wonderful results you might enjoy more as you use the wonderful dessert to ice your aching arms. Hey. You got your family memories, I got mine. Next time: Low Fat frozen Desserts! Posted at 11:21 AM Back to the dentist today. He didn't even ask what was happening with the tooth (the hygenist did, but probably just to be making conversation. I don't know that. I shouldn't blame her for doing her job), he just started in drilling. Grrr. It still hurts when I chew, but now it hurts when I'm not chewing. Grrrr. But on the plus side, I get to go to a toastmasters district 55 fun night prom, 'cause I'm a member. It'll be a pleasant change from work, where I seem to find that I am all the time. So life. Yeah. Posted at 10:37 AM - - - - - - - 20.5.02Oh yeah! I'm putting together a giveaway for this site! I'll be hiding an email address somewhere on the site after I announce the start of the contest. The first, oh, I dunno, like two of five or twenty people or something like that who email will get something nifty that I have put "www.misternihil.com" on. Probably stickers or something. I'm still playing with that. I don't know how many people actually read the page, and it would be fun to reward my fans. All two or five or twenty or something like that of them. Whereas free cool stuff is, I hope, a pretty cool idea, these people did it better. Check out the free game every month. Read the 'zine reviews. Devour the blog. I can't link to them enough. Posted at 10:01 PM SO, who the hell does this guy think he's talking to?" That's the last thing the sunuvabitch got to say before I shot him and he fell from the strut. I know that in some cultures (crazy americans) they seem to have given themselves the idea that when you kill someone, you can somehow get some kind of power from them. Too bad for me this guy didn't know that before he fell. Catlike grace would have made the fall more tolerable, if only because he might not have landed on his head. And that, Watson, is how I solved the case. Sincerely, Sherlock Homes (sic) (from Doyle's forgotten first manuscript, "The Bastard who Shot the Cat.") Posted at 9:54 PM Wow. So, looking back on two posts ago(10:08 am today), I think I gave the wrong impression. The moment I described, not breathing, slowly dying, drowning in dentistry, wasn't really a desperate moment. I only panicked at the end, when I came back up out of it. The moment was really very relaxing and soothing. I've since heard myself describe it as 'zen.' The final word, though, is I can now feel my face again (since about 4pm today, in fact), and I have been to a nifty place called cafe monet. I painted a tea for one, which is a dish I have always liked the look of. Mine isn't as nice as the one on that link, but it's still very much me. You have to put your initials on each piece of the thing (in my case, there are three pieces), so I got to have fun figuring out how to paint the inside of the lid of a teapot, not just with my initials, but with the pattern that spilled over. Toshi painted a 'milk pitcher,' but I can see where it would have many more useful applications than just the one. I'm thinking you could put wine, beer or even flowers in it. The idea was also tossed around, and I know its risqué, to put ice water in it. So yeah. Money. woo. woo. PS. Would have put link to Monet online catalog, but there doesn't seem to be one. Posted at 9:29 PM MinTister Still standing still. rolling like nothing was left. there is no place. for the keen and the deft. This is what happens when you. Stop paying attention to. what matters most and you do. the wrongs of the world then you're through.. Posted at 12:14 PM The hour and a half passed surprisingly quickly, although it was because I had no idea of how much time had gone by. The five shots it took to put my mouth to sleep weren't so bad, but when the nerves twitched, and it felt like a battery was in the back of my mouth, I jumped and he twisted the needle. "Oops," he said. "A little electric shock, yeah? I can't control that. It just happens." He just seemed not to get the whole idea of I-don't-mind-the-pain as-long-as-I-can-see-it-coming. Yeah, it's a long thought, but I like to think it's a simple one. At some point in the procedure, I realized that I wasn't breathing. It was odd. My head was swimming, my mouth was full of spit and nasty-tasting filling water. The congestion in the back of my throat had closed off my breathing passage, and I had just sort of stopped breathing. I let the last little bit of my air out in a gurgle. I think my heart slowed down then, because my arm started to tingle, and I lost feeling in my fingers. I'm not quite sure how long I sat like that. Maybe ten seconds, maybe a minute or more. It's hard to tell. I have no concept of the time that happened, and I was shocked to find that it had been an hour and a half when they were done. Eventually, I let myself start to gag ("Try not to swallow," said my dentist, "this stuff can't get wet"), and swallowed, but with my mouth open so the adhesive didn't get wet. My arm started to wake up then, and my heart began racing. I suppose I must have overreacted. ------------- The story is going well. It started with a feeling I got on the way home night before last, and I've carried it out to one conclusion. I think it starts with "A ghost flew into my car last night as I was driving home. It buzzed against the windows and bumped against the roof. I had to duck to keep it from touching me. It may sound silly, but I was afraid it would bite or sting me." ------------- Half of my mouth is awake again after an hour and a half out of the office. The bottom, where the problem was, where it took three shots to put me down (two shots on top, three on bottom; two fillings on top, one on bottom) still feels like the flesh is made of rubber stuffed with cotton. the numbness goes from just anterior of my jaw to the middle of my chin. The muscles in the jaw are still sore from the shots. The needle has to go between the muscles, which overlap. Yuck. ------------- Ok. Sorry. That's enough of my dental experiences. I know it bothers people, and it sure wasn't fun for me. I wrote another story a while ago, which I will be transcribing here after I set it to music. It was written to be a song in an ongoing project which you can probably pick out if you read the last couple of posts. I'm playing with "Ho Chi MinT" for the title, or something like it. Maybe I'll explain what the project is at some point. Posted at 12:08 PM - - - - - - - 16.5.02Nothing like retail to make you question your motives. A guy who's been coming into the store was outside yesterday when I left. Actually, I was outside, and he came storming up to where I had been, and sat down on the railing where I was waiting for my manager, to whom I was giving a ride. The guy seemed mad, and I asked him what was the matter. "Stupid store," he said. Upon further interrogation (as I am a functioning member of the staff, and I care when people badmouth my store) it turned out that he had, indeed, been refused goods and services, as he did not have enough money. "Stupid people won't give me any money." My manager and I said we were sorry, and that we hoped he had more positive experiences in the future, as there did not, and does not, seem to be an appropriate response to that short of explaining capitalist economics to him. As we left, he tossed out, "I really wanted those spykids books." He came into the store today, wanting a $1.99 book about mister potato head. I think it was a sticker book (Upon further recollection, the book is called "Mr. Potato Head and the Mixed-up groceries). He came up to my register, and said, "How much is this?" I told him it was $1.99, or $2.15 after tax (as I have the amazing ability to add .16 to 1.99 in my head after doing it several hundred times). "I have $1.98," he said to me. So what do you do? I put in the quarter from my pocket, put the book in a bag, handed him the reciept, and wished him well. All of it but the quarter is what I do for every customer, and I had the extra quarter. However, if you give a mouse a cookie... He showed back up some 10 minutes later with the reciept, wanting his money back. Ahh well. Luckily, it requires a manager to give a refund, and the then manager on duty (not the one to whom I gave a ride, although an equally decent human being) had had some complaints about him, and apparently he had, in fact, caused a problem the previous day with this same manager, which is what had lead to his complaint about not getting monetary handouts, and the manager gave him his refund and asked him to leave. I am such a pushover. I just didn't want to fight. So, why am I doing this job again? Oh yeah money. woo. woo. Posted at 11:12 PM - - - - - - - 15.5.02Hmm. Posted at 11:10 PM Does it vex you when nobody pays attention? Not me. I'm happy to have a voice, lost in a chorus, screaming gibberish about how happy we are to be unique. Ahhhh. Anonymity in Singularity. Posted at 11:09 PM JasMin T Do you smell rain for tomorrow Ask me why I know Is there any hope for us In loves embers' glow Sail around my flat earth Burn that damned round sky Posted at 11:06 PM - - - - - - - 11.5.02It's a time honored tradition: Ben Johnson studied Shakespeare and called him a hack. Ben Banneker studied Shakespeare and made clocks and wrote almanacs. Ben Franklin studied Shakespeare and went to foreign shores. I studied Shakespeare and now I work in a bookstore. Aww, crap. Posted at 11:21 AM The funny thing is, that wasn't supposed to be anything like poetry. It just happened to be. Posted at 11:12 AM And, lo, the lord did say, "Hell Yeah." Posted at 11:10 AM In the spirit of giving, Posted at 11:09 AM If every once in a while you say france in your sentences, just thrown in for emphasis, people think you're cultured, those who aren't listening to what you're saying. If every once in a while you say downsize in your sentences, just thrown in for emphasis, people think you're the CEO of a dotcompany, and that some workers are going to get the axe. If every once in a while you say montazumaMercurymumbldypeg in your sentences, just thrown in for emphasis, people think you're crazy, and they won't take you for the draft. Posted at 11:09 AM Peppermint: A thousand miles from anywhere our time is standing still moving faster than the sun dipping behind a hill the flat earth wrapped in round sky void on every side Simple truth expanding there where angels hide their eyes Posted at 11:05 AM Spearmint: I believe in a flat earth, wrapped in a round sky I believe there's no simple truth covering ugly lies I believe there's nothing hiding underneath my skin I'm devoured by my health, nurtured by my sin, There's a house on the corner of the street where I used to live There's nothing in the world for me, but what I have to give. Posted at 11:01 AM - - - - - - - 9.5.02Excuse me while I vent for a moment: The bank says: don't give out your bank account information because if somebody has that and a little bit of other information, that person could drain your account and put you in horrible debt. Southwestern Bell (my local phone monopoly) says:we now have automated bill-payment online, which will make your life easier. Provide us with your routing number and bank account number, social security number and mother's maiden name, and we'll just take the money you owe as you owe it. How dumb do I look? Apparently I look so dumb that they don't even want to take my money. They have an automated bill payment system in which they charge me $6 for them to take my credit card information (a service which is free to them) without their having to have a human there to screw up the transaction (which makes it cost even less). Ok. Sorry. Posted at 9:40 AM - - - - - - - 8.5.02Congratulations on your purchase of HappinessCaution: Do Not Ingest Contents of Happiness!! Prolonged exposure to Happiness may cause hematomas or seldom warts! Do not posit theorums near Happiness or time may cease and need to be restarted! Happiness is not a floatation device! Never leave Happiness unattended near children! Happiness may need to be rebooted from time to time! If Happiness fails to provide expected results, please return unused portion to base of spine! Do not taunt Happiness! Happiness may burst into flames with no warning, and should not be used as children's sleepwear! Happiness is now available in non-prescription strength! Never use Happiness near an open frame! Exposure of Happiness to some common household cleaners may release chlorine gas! Wash Happiness with warm water and a mild soap or dish detergent! Light fuse, then get away! Posted at 1:22 AM Everybody Dance!! Posted at 1:09 AM - - - - - - - 6.5.02There, on the final strut of the unfinished roof, stood the bastard who shot the cat. Posted at 9:35 PM So, just a memory: My parents got a new lap dog, a little thing they call Button. As far as I can remember, Button is the second lap dog they've ever owned, and the third I've ever known. The first was a little thing I have only vague memories of, and was named Cricket. The second really inspired the memory. An ancient poodle wandered into our lives one day. She just sort of showed up on the doorstep, less a collar or tags or any form of identification. My dad proceeded to name her in the same way Button would later get her name: He said a bunch of names at the dog until she responded to one. Her name was, thus, Sissy. When she arrived, she had few teeth, patchy hair and ribs showing. She wasn't really house-trained. Dad fixed these things. I remember Sissy fondly, because she was the only dog we took to the groomers. She'd come back clean, smelling like clean dog, completely disoriented, with pink bows on her head and pink polish on her nails. Ahh, the days. Sorry. It was just that I had a sudden memory of of pink nail polish on a dog, which is what I think of when pet groomers or pet nail clippings are brought up. It stuck with me, and amused me. Posted at 9:23 PM When the revolution came, nobody was spared. They turned on their former 'masters' (if you could call them that in the first place. There was no real control exercized) and the piles of the dead lay in decomposing heaps, some of which were visible from space. There was no warning, but that's what you'd expect from them. There was no leader, and the empire crumbled a matter of hours after the last of my kind had started cooling. In the civil war that followed, divisions arose along lines as arbitrary as skin and hair color or as pointless as preference of fish. Days later, when the infighting slowed, regional leaders arose and were overthrown, then local leaders, then the survivors paired off and tried each to stake out a territory which invariably included the territories of those around them. With the numbers thus thinned, all hope of long-distance communication was lost. Thus began and ended the glorious revolution of the cats. Posted at 9:55 AM How oddly poetic. Just as I finished the seed of the idea for "Our Computers are Down," my modem decided it wanted to go on strike, and would no longer connect to far off lands like blogger. Sweet, Sweet irony leaves a rusty taste in the mouth. Posted at 9:44 AM - - - - - - - | All material copyright 2002-2003 Ben Gibbs. | |||||||||
