Deviant Brainwave Design Changes

You may have noticed that recently things have been moving around here a bit – different colours, three columns, and new links.

What do you think? Good or bad? Keep, change, or go back to the way it was before? Any ideas?

Matrix Rebooted

We went to see Matrix Reloaded last night.

I really don’t know what the fuss is about. The chairs in the theatre weren’t that comfortable to sleep on.

Flavours

I have just managed to cook a dish which was absolutely amazing! For someone with a total lack of culinary talent like me, this is a big thing. It started with a nice recipe I found on allrecipes but didn’t quite have all the ingredients for, so I decided to change it a bit to fit what I had and maybe reduce a calorie or two and it actually came out good!

Here’s the recipe for all of you to enjoy. I’m not sure all my ingredients are accurate; I didn’t measure everything, so you might have to tweak them a bit.

Deviant Brainwave’s Artichoke and Stuff Pasta

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

250g any kind of pasta

Olive oil

200g frozen artichoke hearts

1 chopped onion

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

150g sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped

Juice of 0.5 a lemon

1 glass of dry white wine

100g sliced green olives

Handful of fresh basil

Salt, black pepper and dried chilli to taste

Directions

1. Cook the artichoke the artichoke hearts, drain and leave to cool. Cut to large cubes.
2. Cook the pasta and drain.
3. Heat the olive oil and fry the onion until it is tender. Add the artichoke hearts and cook until they become slightly golden. Add the garlic and tomatoes and let the tomatoes’ liquids come out for a few minutes.
4. Add the lemon juice and white wine, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, basil and spices and leave to cook on a low heat until about 50% of the liquids evaporate
5. Toss the pasta with the sauce and serve

Enjoy!

Strike One And I’m Out

I had my first scooter driving test yesterday. It started early and finished quickly.

I made a stupid mistake and failed… Oh well, there will be another chance soon enough.

National Vegetarian Week

This week is National Vegetarian Week in the UK. A good reason to spread a few words about why being a vegetarian is a good thing.

And if all these health are not enough, ladies wearing lettuce, boys in broccoli or Pamela Anderson should convince anyone.

Webcast Review: Not At All Like The Real Thing

Over the weekend, the Blur’s website’s Members area had the welcome addition of a recording of the fourth night of their residency at the London Astoria. The show is streamed in Flash with an audio player accompanied by the view from three web cams that were located on different sides of the stage.

I am one of the lucky people who are able to stream in broadband, but I would not try to do this over a modem.

The audio, recorded by the people from Radio1, is in good quality. Listening to a Blur gig could only be a good thing. The video section, on the other hand, will need a lot more to meet expectations. During songs the refresh rate of about 1 per second of blurred pictures gives the impression that the web cams were for some reason, pointing straight to the stage lights, showing mostly spots of colour and maybe a silhouette from time to time. Between songs is when the web cam comes alive. Suddenly a quick stream of images shows a clear image of a stage as if it was fast-forwarded on a VCR. Seems to me that if the video content was already buffered, there is no real reason to wait until the end of the song to show it, it is merely a matter of bad synchronisation.

Listening to Blur was wonderful. If I were lucky to attend the gig, listening to the stream with a few blurred web cam images would have been a good way to reminisce over a wonderful night. However, for the unlucky fans, this is no substitute. Although the ability to stream a gig in good enough video and audio quality was already proved by Radio1 and XFM, the Blur web site producers have not learned the important lessons.

Job Opportunity

There’s a vacancy in the US Mental Health Service for a fluent Klingon speaker.

I’m not sure whom you should send your CV to, but I know a few people who would be perfect for the job.

Music Review: White Stripes, Elephant

Elephant is an album I was looking forward to get my hands on, and it did not disappoint at all. Definitely worth the wait.

Listening to Elephant can be a very therapeutic mix of feelings, from rhythms that just make you want to jump around to lyrics that make you want to cry. It takes music back to basics, as a tool for expressing emotions as well as inspiring them. It is also an album that stays with you, constantly playing in your head and helping relive the experience of listening to it for the first time.

The album starts with the single, “Seven Nation Army”. It’s a good start to an album with the rhythm and Jack White’s voice taking hold of body and mind, creating a great need to move with it. I’ve been finding myself many times recently walking around the office and humming bits of the guitar riffs.

It’s not only the music that grasps attention. The bitter lyrics of “There’s No Home for You Here” will cause the brave to shiver and the faint hearted to cry. I must admit that I was close to the latter… However, any sadness disappeared as soon as I heard Meg’s refreshing voice on “In the Cold, Cold Night”, a simple and gorgeous love song that left me craving, and made me wonder why Meg White has been hiding behind her drum kit for so long.

Emotions are stirred again by “Little Acorns”; its words of wisdom make good cheer-up music. Beware; it could also make you want to have your hair cut.

Finally comes laughter. “Well It’s True That We Love One another” sounds like a good answer to the odd are-they-really-brother-and-sister rumour and ended 49.54 minutes of sensation with a big smile my face.

The Full Monty

Seems like some people are still having a good time in Israel.

“An Israeli policeman responding to neighbours’ complaints about a noisy hen party found himself mistaken for the main attraction.”

I suspect one or all of the following:

1. The policeman had quite a bit of fun, and maybe even got back for more
2. His colleagues are about to have a lot of fun on his expense

R.I.P. Belle

My little Belle is no more. Passed away at the young age of three.

It is not something I know for sure, and there is still a very slight hope that she will come back to me, but the chance is slim.

Belle has been ill for a very long time. It was a parasite that she inherited at birth and could not be rid off, and which erupted every few months to make her feel very poorly. The last time was only a few months ago.

About a month ago she started showing the symptoms again. I was going to take her to the vet that evening, but by the time I got home she disappeared. She probably used her usual crack in the window to wonder outside. I was hoping that she would be back soon after; like she has done in the past, but a month later she is still not back. Maybe she went away to die peacefully.

A friend that lives not far from me said that he saw a cat that matches her description dead in the middle of the road about two kilometres away. Of course, it could have been another cat, which is what keeps my slender hope that Belle will come back to me after all.

Belle left behind a sad Deviant and a lonely Sebastian.

She will be sadly missed.