The Irascible Chef

So Dude, I’m like, in a band.

It happened a couple of weekends ago. Kinda by surprise… Couple friends, hangin, ridiculously trite enough, it all started in the garage.

Yeah, the past couple of weeks have been rough—you know, life on the road and all. City after city, club after club. Don’t get me wrong the fans are great and all.

I’m the lead Guitarist, or Bassist when I need to be, sometimes I might whale on the drums, or even belt one out on the microphone! Yeah, life aint easy for a boy named Sue, if you know what I mean.

Photo: The 5th Ape

Up til all hours practicing taking turns. The other night after a long set I needed to relax, unwind, get rid of some of the aggression…

I got in a fight with this guy I didn’t even know, we wore gloves so it was somehow civilized, but it didn’t matter he was going down—not me! He went down over and over again. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke I beat up some other guy too! I was on a roll! So I headed down to the very local alley on the side of the house and messed up some pinheads big time. They deserved it, they just stood there like idiots! They kept getting up so I kept knocking them down! I told them to stay down… there fault really.

Before bedding down I tried my skills at the rackets and did pretty well there too—I just couldn’t be beat that night. I was unstoppable!

Is this where we’re headed? Really? I would never imagined. But really the larger question should be, is it a bad thing?

I mean I was killing it on the instruments, beating people up in the ring, knocking down pinheads in the alley, and slaughtering my opponents on the tennis courts. What a life! I was the RockStar, the World Heavyweight Champ, the best bowler and tennis star on in the same night! No joke, it was awesome!

Only moderate skill, and dexterity is required to participate let alone be successful, to be the winner, the champion! Time seems to be the big loser, but time that goes by quickly in the virtual world by comparison would take forever in the real world. If I had to drive to and from let alone participate in those events it would have taken 10 times as long—I actually saved time!

But is this what it’s all about? And why does it feel so bad that it might be. So I’m not really playing a guitar with strings or hitting an actual tennis ball or person, or rolling a ball down the lane. What I am doing is producing some results that are measurable. It does take some skills, just not the same ones to do the actual activity, the skills can be compared to other peoples skills…

It is getting more and more realistic. No, it’s not the same thing, but why does it have to be? It will continue to get better, more senses will be stimulated, it even includes a raised heart rate and physicality, even strength and conditioning training!

I want to say I don’t like the direction we’re headed and we are on the bullet train there.

Should there be resistance and why?

Yes, it won’t be acceptable to the purist, but neither was digital photography to the film photographer, but now the technology has gotten better and better and film will be soon gone. And the bottom line is, does it really matter. Does it matter that I don’t have to be exposed to disgusting cancer causing chemicals to produce photographs when I can reproduce any type of affect that can be produced the traditional way… I resisted for years until all of my complaints, issues, and requirements have been solved or addressed.

I could stay in my own home and do everything that can be done in the real world and it would all appear to be real to my mind and body… Everyone will be able to participate at their own level, no more will there be exclusions or obstacles—EVERYONE will be able to enjoy the participation in anything they want!

Children of the future won’t even know the difference because it’s all they will know.

Virtual life has become reality… And, yes, every experience can be duplicated! Maybe this new reality should be embraced versus resisted—I don’t know, but it’s something to think about…

So as I was sayin, I’m in a band—a freaken Guitar Hero! And Dude, I just started like a World Tour!

You lookin at me?

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Bass, Bowling, Boxing, Boy named Sue, Drums, Entertainment, everyone participation, future, Guitar, GuitarHero, Metallica, Op/Ed, Reality, Rockband, Science fiction, Singing, Tennis, Virtual reality

We had a little dinner party last night and although I prefer my food a little hotter (the trouble with being the cook) I think the food was right on target! The guests were happy—the goal!

If you would like any recipes just ask—lol!

The Menu

Passed appetizers included:

• Jarlsberg & Cambozola with crackers
• DL Pate with orange marmalade
• Fresh Mozz rolled with prosciutto and basil on seasoned croutons—warmed in the oven and drizzled with balsamic and olive oil.
• Jumbo lump crab meat on endive leaves with a dill mayo.
• Assorted California roll sushi with wasabi and ginger

The main event included:

• Sweet potatoes roasted with a modest cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, butter and seasoned just right.
• Baked stuffed mushrooms with, garlic, onions, diced mortadella, cheese, and bread crumbs—my grandfathers recipe.
• Green beans sautéed with garlic and onions.
• Beef Wellington iChef-twist—roasted filet of beef sliced and placed between puff pastry, garnished with a duxelle and pate and served with a cognac demi-glace with mushrooms.
• Mixed salad greens with carrots, mango, green apples and a balsamic vinaigrette.
• Wine and dessert brought by our guests were perfect!

The company was great! The wine was great! Yeah, the food was great too!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: # Baked stuffed mushrooms, # Sweet potatoes, Beef Wellington iChef-twist, demi-glace, Dinner Party Menu, Fresh Mozz, Jumbo lump crabmeat, Mixed salad greens, mortadella, prosciutto, sushi with wasabi and ginger, wine

I love this guy! Thanks Pam!

Rep. Joe Knollenberg(R-MI): We Aren’t Using Taxpayer Money For Bailouts, Tinkerbell Sprinkled Pixie Dust By: Pam

That’s right, you tell them Knollenberg..Tell them how Tinkerbell flew in and sprinkled pixie dust all over the treasury, and now, magically, they have all kinds of money, and not a dime of it came from the taxpayer!

Watch as he tells Cavouto that it isn’t our money:

You might think about messing with Jim, but I’m telling you—“You don’ tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t try to mess around in an interview with Neil!”

More:

Video: Bailout money doesn’t belong to us by Ed Morrissey

Why are you worried about bailouts, anyway? Don’t you know it’s not your money, but that it belongs to Congress? If I asked which party produced the Congressman who gave that assessment, you might be surprised (via Michelle):

The first rule of smaller government is that the money does not belong to Congress. It belongs to the people who earned it, and should be treated that way. The money should be treated as such and used with great care on only those essential government functions, and only to the extent necessary. If one is ever tempted to declare that tax monies do not belong to the American people, that person has ceased being conservative at all, and has begun being imperial instead.

Technorati Tags: Auto industry, Bailout, Cavuto, Don't mess around with Jim, Don't mess around with Neil Cavuto, financial crisis, GM, Jim Croce, Neil

tolerant intolerance | ‘täl erent| |in ‘täl erens|

State of being
1 showing willingness to be tolerant, but hypocritically exhibiting extreme unwillingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with :not tolerant of others’ views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own : he was intolerant of her philosophical difference of political views by screaming obscenities to stifle her voice from being heard.

tolerant | ‘täl erent|
adjective
1 showing willingness to allow the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with : we must be tolerant of others | a more tolerant attitude toward other religions.

tolerance |’täl erens|
noun
1 the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with : the tolerance of corruption | an advocate of religious tolerance.

intolerant |in ‘täl erent|
adjective
not tolerant of others’ views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own : he was intolerant of ignorance.
• unable to be given (a medicine or other treatment) or to eat (a food) without adverse effects : intolerant of aspirin | [ postpositive ] these patients were lactose intolerant.

From The Anchoress: The Middle Finger… says it all!

It is so obvious, so pathetic, why can’t they see it? The ground work has been put in place for this transformation for the last 40 years or so. Each step of the way taking a little more in the name of tolerance, each step of the way being less tolerant of other view points… Can it be more ironic? Or is it that it isn’t ironic at all, but part of the plan and always has been—may be it’s not part of the plan, but in fact IS the plan.

It’s working. You see it now more than ever. And the wish to play itself out and see it cave in on itself will never happen because those leading the charge will never admit it. Those following will never admit it because that would mean admitting that they were wrong (by not being tolerant of other view points) and personal responsibility is not part of the plan. (which is also part of the plan—take away personal responsibility so that it’s always someone else’s fault…Blame others!) The true believers don’t have the ability to see it—that functionality has been scraped away from their DNA little bits at a time. All in the name of the greater good. Ah, the greater good…

This is exactly what I’m talking about!

Ed Morrissey: Barone: The thugocracy cometh

Michael Barone warns that a victory by Barack Obama will endorse his tactics in silencing critics, which should concern all non-leg-tingling media in this country. In fact, Barone points out that it will merely be the next step to the Left’s “progressive” march into killing free political speech — or at least that speech with which they disagree:

Amused Cynic: “…the coming liberal Thugocracy….”

Further update: Yard sign rage. Just lovely. The same kind of losers who keyed my car. If this had happened to an Obama sign Katie Couric would be reporting it.

Got TOLERANCE? From the people of tolerance: This is just too good—must see to believe—all in one place—ala Michelle Malkin: Crush the Obamedia narrative: Look who’s “gripped by insane rage”

Update10/27/08: The tolerance of the Left

by Ed Morrissey

Disgusting!

The latent misogyny and bigotry of the Left?

Technorati Tags: iChef Politikos Intolerance, News, Politics, the greater good, tolerance

The roller coaster! Traveling around the world! Buying low! Jumping out an airplane! Love! Who has had the opportunity and later regretted not taking a chance on it?

Know this, that history tells us that there will always be at least a second opportunity, at whatever it may be, that you perceived to be a once in a lifetime chance. I believe this with my whole heart!

You just need to realize it and take advantage of it when it does appear again. Oh, it also takes balls of steel, the same balls that were necessary the first go round—and for one reason or another you didn’t have them.

The Stock Market has been in free fall for the last two weeks. Reality says that there’s no rhyme or reason—its the fear, the stress, THE PANIC, that’s moving this crazy train. Sure the credit fiasco is to blame, but we have been saved by the Government! The Government put in place something to prevent this disaster right? We went down 500 points one day because the bailout wasn’t approved and up 400 the next day when nothing was being done. Friday, after the Bailout was signed down we go 300 plus and today an additional 800 at one time, but finished ONLY down another 370.

We are in some major uncertain times. And it is scary! People are losing everything they’ve saved in a lifetime. People that are running out of time on their life! How will they recover? Will the government bail them out? Do we want the that to be what the government does? Who will pay for it all—YOU and ME, who always pay!

Well, the Market hasn’t seen prices this low in years! And it can still go SIGNIFICANTLY lower… There are no guarantees! We can all be out of work! We can all lose our homes and not have anything to eat! The price of oil is going lower on the expectation that we won’t be going anywhere or doing anything. The price of oil should never be this high in the first place. But it is—Reality!

I missed an opportunity to buy my grandmothers house for a bargain and home prices went through the roof, now they’re sinking like a rock—nobody can borrow money to buy it anyway! Who knows what calamity will happen next?

I missed an opportunity to buy into the market after the tech bubble burst! (I did lose my SHIRT in the bursting bubble—little shell-shocked!) Who knew what calamity would happen next? If I only did…

I missed an opportunity to buy into the market after 9/11! Who knew what calamity would happen next? If I only did…

I missed an opportunity to backpack through Europe after college. The war had just broken out, who knew what calamity would happen next? I had an opportunity, people warned against it, but I took the chance. I took it! Amazing!

I missed an opportunity to jump out of a plane when I was 30. Guess I’ll never be 30 again. But I made an opportunity when my brother turned 30 and took the chance. I took it! Amazing!

There’s an opportunity to buy into this current disaster—Who knows what calamity will happen next? What will you do? What will you be saying 5 years from now?

—iChef PSA

Technorati Tags: 9/11, America, Dow Jones Industrial average, Election 2008, Europe, Government, News, Stock Market, tech bubble

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you’s. It’s a very complicated case, Maude—Jeff Lebowski.

Frank Video: Fannie and Freddie is FINE:

Frank and O’Reilly cage match:

Commentary:

• Baldwin Blames Financial Crisis on Clinton, Dems and Barney Frank by NewsBusters—fun article
  

• Did Frank have a conflict of interest at Fannie Mae? October 4, by USA TERM LIMITS October 3, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

• The More the Culpable! video on The Anchoress:

• Why our financial system nearly collapsed – UPDATED by The Anchoress:

UPDATE 10/07/2008

This in from Ed Morrissey at HotAir: Frank: Criticism of Congress is now racist, too

Barney Frank’s latest defense of Congress over the financial meltdown could be predicted based on the success of Barack Obama’s campaign in using the same defense. According to Rep. Frank, any attempt to pin the blame for the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the activities of both, as well as Congressional policy that fueled it, is now officially racist. Frank says conservatives want to blame minorities for the collapse. Let’s keep score.

Criticizing Obama means we’re racists. Criticizing Congress means we’re racists. Getting angry at Congress for pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into buying bad loans and infecting the entire financial system with essentially fraudulent paper — at a cost of up to $700 billion in taxpayer money and potentially trillions in lost investments — means we’re racists.

How about this from The Anchoress:

Unafraid of being called an “over the line racist” John McCain finally started fighting. And yes, now it’s racist to talk about Fannie Mae. All subjects that might harm Barack Obama’s chances in November: racist. The Dems are finally dulling the effect of that word with their overuse.

Technorati Tags: Barney Frank, Fannie, Freddie, O'Reilly, The Big Lebowski

Question: How can you say Sarah Palin doesn’t have experience, and at the same time say that Barack Obama does? Question: And when asked what example can you cite, the same people say BO has run a successful primary campaign…

Question: How can you say Sarah Palin is BAD, BAD, BAD, and when asked for an example, you say she was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it and she used that example on national TV. (She was for it, as a matter of opinion, before she was in a position, she didn’t vote or anything for it, it was put to her as a question on her campaign for governor trail—and she said yes.) All this aside, Palin is bad and not worthy because she was for the idea of the bridge.

Question: So by that rationale anybody in the US Senate who voted for money that would go to this bridge is ALSO BAD—no? The key word is rationale… Ah, rationale!

Question: My guess is if Biden and Obama voted for the money it would be okay, because of the rationale of double standard. Even if they BOTH voted for keeping the bill alive twice AND voted once against an amendment that would strip out the money for the bridge project from the bill. They have immunity to these horrendous charges—they are still better than the BAD Sarah Palin! Right? Because she’s BAD! No, that would be hypocritical, and the people who are RIGHT (LEFT) are never hypocrites—right?

Question: So, the question remains, what do you do when your argument negates itself and in keeping your argument proves you are a hypocrite, what do you do? Some proof and video, from all places, CNN!

Question: What’s this? Investigative reporting from CNN??? MUST See video!

DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.

And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.

An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana.

But Biden andObama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country.

Change is what you want… R i g h t

Question: Is the above news some kind of trick or trap? It seems so obvious… As formerly stated on TheAnchoressOnline: Astroturfing Palin & Race-baiting, etc UPDATED

This goes along with my previous point. What the press does not want you to see, you will not see. What it does want you to see, you’ll see everywhere. The press wants you to see Sarah Palin and John McCain in the worst possible way, and Obama in the best. Which would be fine, if they’d just admit it and stop pretending they’re the gatekeepers and mediating intelligences who are somehow “keeping things balanced.”

As Archie Bunker used to say, Good night nurse!”

—iChef Politikos

Technorati Tags: Archie Bunker, Biden and Obama, Change, Hurricane Katrina, hypocrisy, Sarah Palin is BAD, Sen. Tom Coburn, US Senate

I will spare you the narrowing down process as it was exhausting to say the least. I will also disclose that all this happened in Feb-March of 2008—as gas prices were inclining, but still not skyrocketing.

(in my calculations of gas future costs I planned on $5 a gallon gas in the next couple of years, to which one of my colleagues chortled, “feeling a little bullish on gas prices are you?” This from a man who drives a V-8 Audi Super-Guzzler…) Well, I felt like gas prices will be there in the next couple of years anyway. And besides there’s no reason in the World that prices will be coming down anytime soon when so much money is being made from the something that costs no more to pull out of the ground then it did in the last few years… I believe it costs Saudi Arabia $2-3 per barrel—at current figures $137/barrel. $134 profit per barrel. What’s the percentage of profit here?!?!! Mother…

Not where I wanted to go. Okay, let me just say no one is chortling now except for you know them—Saudi Arabia and the US Government who makes more on taxes on gasoline than the profit by big oil over the last 10 years… I digress again. I am sorry. No, don’t drill here! No, don’t have new refineries here! No, don’t open more nuclear power plants! No! No! No! No! Don’t do that! Just complain that we have to defend a region of the world that’s crazy messed up because WE ALL USE too much oil from those foreign places when we do have an option right here! I am sorry for that. Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: auto, iChef Retail

I’m in Denver—87 degrees and mix of sun and clouds. Just had a Guinness and a chicken sandwich with bacon, swiss, and honey mustard dressing—very outstanding! The bartender was also excellent and he made the experience! All this and still in the airport. My connecting flight was at the complete opposite end of airport—of course!

The United Checker Cab was ontime this morning which came oh so quickly at 5:45 am. Finished packing at 2:30 am—you do the math. Oh, and I looked at the clock every ten minutes until 5 am.

My Executive Sous Chef woke up just in time to sew a missing button on my shirt and a hug goodbye—Two very pleasant surprises!

It’s been a fantastic morning so far!

About to board for NYC!

—iChef out!

I have been to a few vacation towns in my life. Charming little places that I’ll never forget: Montauk, NY (a personal favorite); Hampton Bays, NY—not the snooty Hamptons; Sedona, AZ; Three Arch Bay in Laguna, CA; Cape May, NJ; Cold Springs, NY; Manchester, VT; Mystic, CT; and Pawleys Island, SC to name a few. Ah, the places my parents took our family growing up and some of found on my own. Great shopping, great restaurants, great beach time, great memories…

Capitola California is such a place—Charming, small, quaint, and not commercialized. There are just the right amount of people. You have to drive out of the downtown (about a mile) to get a Pete’s coffee. Relax they have a few of their own cozy, been-there-forever spots to get a cup of coffee.

Part of their charm derives from the fact that these places, for the most part, stay the same—the communities resist commercial change. You can count on the mainstay mom and pop joints as well as the hipsters that have staked their claim—really the originals, startup operations that were copied, mass-produced, and optimized by the commercial establishment—you know the names they’re now familiar to everyone. But in the process sacrificing personalization, quaintness, and that intangible something that you can count on being how you remembered it the last time you were there. Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: Beach, Capitola