a side note

This is a post to mix up my (own) shared authorship of this weblog. And to test out a certain IFTTT recipe that has yet to perform as expected.

Procrastinating is mayhap my middle name if I should to choose; a) another and b) a new middle name. From the get-go of the week I could list down a few entries that is on my ever expanding assembly of blog posts (and these are inclusive of the older entries that I never did go around to finally start a proper list for these 'missables'...no, not yet) and when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my falling behind Ma's recipe entries at the moment. Although at that moment I recalled setting another mental note (when will you learn?) to at least try to match hers by coming up with a piece every time I edit & publish hers, but I suppose that certainly feels like a lifetime ago. See?
Furthermore I tend to justify by mixing up my entries (or at least try to) as unlike Ma's, I am keeping a so-called day-to-day of what's happening to me and I don't get that urge to digitize my recipes; since I have so many back-logged dishes and materials (both pics and much older videos too).
The same goes to blogging about the (many) TV series again and again; it just isn't a movie rant space anyway,
There, justifying, yet again.

Anyhow, as I've somehow started another blog on wordpress, I've been meaning to separate what little I have; streamlining this to that and vice versa; but as you guessed it, I am still letting the dangerous thing called time  to be both guide and con artist; as usual, what do you expect? Ha!

Greater Galangal & Refried Tofu in Dried Shrimp Stir-Fry (and featuring Angèl) | 南薑炒香豆干 | Lengkuas Masak Taukwa Udang Kering

closed the editor tab; so I'll just use the same pix as Ma's

Galangal & Tofu Stir-fry
ingredients
4 pcs Tofu - rinsed and patted dry
1 pcs Galangal; sliced, rough as this goes to the mortar. Total length under 2 inches should be sufficient, if the flavor is overpowering do adjust accordingly on the next round :)
1/2 cup Dried Shrimp; Rinsed
Garlic; Cloves - half a bulb or more as your preference
Pepper; White, Ground
Sugar; (I am not judging so you choose your type of su-gah)- a good pinch
Cooking Wine; Shaoxin
Fish Sauce
Oil for Frying (technically you just need enough to coat the pan when frying the tofu, with what's left is decent to start the stir-fry)

yes it is only 4 pieces of taukwa

method

1. Brown the tofu in a hot shallow pan. Set aside, drained, cut into your preferred size when cooled
2. Pound (or Grind with fancy food processor?) garlic, dried shrimps with galangal
   Heat this mixture with the remaining oil in the pan.
3. Add cut Fried Tofu, season with white pepper.
4. Splash Shaoxin & flame.
   Season with that bit of sugar and fish sauce (say, 15 dashes) adjust to taste.
5. Plate & garnish accordingly. Certainly needs some green or maybe red : spring onions, chives, coriander works great, red chillies. Of course, from the pix I used ulam raja (shieze can't remember the name now..er Cosmos... Cosmo the Space Dog?)

Galangal | click to learn more about Chewing John

Anyhow, my Ma's version is slightly different in taste, but still awesome as a meal by itself and without any hint of alcohol too
Here's the recipe in chinese.

Blogging With My Mother

Indeed it has been a great start to the year, and there by the grace of God it is certainly getting better, man. (Why am I inserting two post-britpop titles in that one sentence?)

This one miracle started to become clear to me in Day 4 (of this round of Fasting + Prayer for the year) that the veil that has blinded my eyes & the muffs that covered my ears has been lifted away by His power.
I shall attempt to guide my mom to blog. Yes!

[6th February]

She had been writing to publishers of various types with her recipes , stories and testimonials for years; inevitably her snail  submissions dwindled as years go by as even some editors wrote (and sent her letters back) to tell her to re-send a typed and subsequently in electronic .
However, I found out late last year that she did migrate to computer at a time 5-6 years ago; as my late sister taught her to use the computer and some chinese input device complete with software. 

Of course with the advent and abundance of tech these days there's just so many ways to go around getting your thoughts onto the screen. For much of the year I've been caught up and stuck to no avail on how to go about this, it is a given that we (hoomans, or maybe just lazy me) have been conditioned to the norm; and I've certainly given much thought on looking out for decent-sized tablet rather than the much heavier Note 10.1 ( I think) that is a bit too bulky to Ma's liking. Of course, with my being shrewder by the weeks I kind of resigned myself to nonchalantly half-eyed looking out for promotional deals of tablets/ or those lower end wide screened smartphones; and reading up on various alternate methods on the output (there was a time I considered writing on a tab and displaying on the spare telly) and even the older way of getting those USB-powered stylus pads (that didn't happen as I was pretty put off by the simplistic and shady description from the e-vendors)

Anyhow, armed with a clear vision from my meditation, I recalled that one time I showed her my weblog and I went home in a fury to tell her to clear her time the next day. We switched cooking days and by the afternoon I started my grand scheme when she was ready. She was absolutely delighted and of course both of us were astonished that it was just lying around in front of our eyes and not to see it on how easy the solution was.

A month down the road; she has been pretty constant in her weblog of her various recipes and of course; I am still trying to get her to start to blog about something else rather than recipes,ie; her many stories, her many testimonials of the wonders of Christ , etc.
I am surprised at her keeping up the habit and resolution to write a single piece a day, something that I can't do and will (chiefly because I'd justify that mine needs timing and structure) and of course, hers are composed of simplistic instructions (as rather my nonsensical comments folded onto most of my recipes anyway) but I suppose that works; keeping it simple for people to actually read. Oh well.
To date, she has about 18 posts in these 5-6 weeks, she did stop for 2 weeks or so during CNY period and also whenever we travel.

I've switched her to compose in Google Keep (since the auto-save function works dead well) and I'll manually transfer it over to her blog on the computer; since pictures were taken from my phone, with additional photo editing. This setup works the best at the moment, along the way I had to resort to mailing the pics to her gmail and that's just 2 steps extra and sometimes 3 if done up on smartphones of varying degrees. Once it is published; the automation from IFTTT kicks in to share on her facebook; and it's the final step of looking that post up from the tablet and showing it to her (since it's the bigger screen; and I'm not that keen to fire up the 2nd telly to show her anyway,ha!)

I am sure some day I'll find a better way to minimize all this extra steps, but I am happy this keeps her occupied (no, she is a very busy woman with her many to-do things on her daily plate) with something she likes to do but circumstances denied her and it certainly gave her the joy to share her recipes in (the relative forever) cyberspace;somehow.

Oh, this post takes too long to post (ref: this laptop was in the shop for 5 weeks) , this is a good opportunity to test out the back-dating function!

Christmas & other things

Blessed Christmas!

Woke up to the sad news of the demise of George Michael.
But nevertheless, it certainly has been a good stretch of days over this festive weekend. After fretting over (just a little bit,really) the food prep (maybe 15%) and the guitar playing (okay, tbh close to 51%) on Saturday, praise be to God for the guiding hand and lifting of spirit. I suppose it was a splendid night, and as it was apparent with most of the food being polished off their plates.

Saturday started with rendering the video for the night; and raced off to hunt for some disposable plates (Mom can't seem to find the party-wares somehow) but we found sets of nifty looking plastic wares at the 2 Ringgit store. With just over afternoon, I decided to send the car to wash, fueled up and also a much-belated haircut, although not in that particular order. Got home with enough time for a good shower before starting my prep. Pretty good our workflow that day; I finished my 2 dishes and Mom was practically finished by the time Harry and I left bout 6ish; picking up the 2 brothers a coupla streets away.
Must've been eons since I last wore a necktie, proper knot and all. Reached TBC with a solid hour to spare; which was a timely thing for me to have my last rehearsal and regaining some confidence I might say.
I suppose I did okay, a few instances of wrong chords were struck and coupled with a few louder bangs of those that I could play decently. As the night wore on, confidence grew of course, and I didn't have to refer back to my 'notes' (or even write on my arm as I half-planned to)
By the 4th house it was already 10pm; (and way past Dad's bedtime) and we braved the night's light drizzle of rain while I placed the call to Mom to get her big-sized helper to plate the dishes etc.

All in all the guests gleaned off the food, and surprisingly the salad was the first to go 86 and we cleaned up by midnight and slept like a log.
Funny thing is, my Christmas 2016 video (that costs 2GB of my limited space these days) didn't get used to its' potential, oh well. :D

Woke up early and went to TBC for service, which doubles as a baptismal, which is also Harry's big day!

I suppose I was pretty exhausted, and with DiGi's coverage being a pain during every festivities, it certainly didn't help with my finishing up my greeting e-cards, (and its subsequent Christmas wishes on social media) I kinda spent the rest of my Christmas with the cat and reading this week's cat comics and er, some Futurama (to clear some disk space; since I have duplicates lying about)
Some of my eventual e-cards that I made, and oh yeah, the recipe!

Thanks DiGi, I'll make my amendments

le Originale

ok, this is 98% Canva

The other one for the other account

The Guitar Story

My,..I certainly have quite a huge task this month.
I agreed to help Pastor C out for this year's Christmas Caroling, since as you might need jogging your memory; Taiping Baptist Church are practically always shorthanded somehow with their almost non-existent of youths. And since I've been helping him out these few months on our fortnightly visits to the Old Folks Homes as backing guitar (and in which became main guitar) I did a Ezra Miller-esque Barry Allen and said "YES" when he asked 3 weeks ago. (oh, of course, not as eager-beaver like in that Justice League trailer)

Went for the first formal practice last Sunday, got the playlist and yeah of course with my recent round of guitar-ing activity, I find myself in increasing difficulty setting to just remember any chord transitions; I do somehow am afraid my memory ain't as good with me being over the hill age-wise; but this nasty short-term memory ain't processing as fast as they used to eh? I might deduce the fact that we somehow just might be conditioned in such as we are too easily absorbed into quick links and our attention span waned thanks to other technologies aka distractions, don't you think?
Anyhow, last Sunday went by pretty OK, and I was pretty upbeat that I can pull it off seemingly how hard could caroling be? encouraging myself; and even Harry asked me have I caroled before (he was with us as he'd stayed on after service for his baptismal class, yay) when I was a wee lad; in which I could be certain I never did play the guitar on caroling, but hazily I do remember doing it somehow or perhaps twice practically a figment of memory with no real comprehension on the when (teen years in Taiping or was it young adult with FGT)
..of course as I shifted through the few bits of both Westworlds (the 1973 movie and the new series finale and writing about it) the days counting until Wednesday when we went to Sunshine Home; I was back to square one: I can't remember the chords, nor some of the rhythm of some songs; both the Christmas hymnals and even the usual few that I alternately played on the Sunshine visits. Thus, I started to feel a bit of nagging fear around the corner that seems to be sneering at me, and spat "Are You Sure?"

I am not even a decent guitar player. Even worse at bass. I suspect I am somewhat tone-deaf in addition to me not being able to read music..but I've played for people and performed in the past. Pretty alright, I suppose, all of the time. I suppose I could carry a tune well enough (imitating-ly ~ I reckon there is no such word, man) and somehow look (half) decent performing it, whilst bandmates/members masked my instruments?
It should be about 21 years ago when I started to hold a guitar and twanged a bit of sound from it. I remember hazily and suppose it must've been some sort of glory days then to have the bunch of us musically illiterate small-town boys learning our chords and practice and jam. Sweat, parched throats, banged ear-drums, tears and blood staked into the mash-up for the simple joy and fame (and dreams, of course)
Eventually some of us went on and became better in playing music, and even 1 of us actually majored in music (I suppose) and in the music industry somewhat. But as for you, Mr Constant Backslider, you have certainly devolved as years go by, of course the bulk of the last 15 years (or so as I recall roughly) of not really touching any instruments has been because of that, although I might say I still do play a mean The Drug's Don't Work still (yeah tried it out finally the other day, albeit with a few mishit of chords; but the feel is still there)
But enough of that.
What I really want to put into scope here is this.

As Pastor C came for a 1-on-1 sesh with me; I was running through the back of my mind that I am facing a sort-of uphill battle to learn quite a bit in this short span of time. Technically in the next 10 days or so, to build up the confidence for the Caroling (should still be able to knock it off easy) and then the 'big one' on Christmas Day for the segmented medley.
But I suppose with prayers, discipline (oh no, something that I lack at times, well most of the time) and with almost all of the tv shows on their mid-season breaks (well, except these additional 5 extra episodes of Vikings Season 4) I suppose my distractions would only come from the few comics and oh, a trip to Penang this Monday; and a wedding to attend this weekend as my run-in to Christmas. Gah! Christmas Cards and gifts!
I am sort-of cramming a few of these: reading sheet music, some easy scales (fingers were forever stiff as *#$k) , remembering sheets and notes and chords, okay, I really do have in good faith the Lord will provide...and of course I've gotta be putting my hours in to getting conditioned to play the guitar.

did this moments ago (yeah took a break since fingers numb much faster) and hey,  I like this quote yo!

p/s: oh, I finally lost my months-old DIY guitar pick/spectrum on Wednesday's visit. Felt a wee bit sad when I was searching for it yet again, but alas it really has gone invisible. Serves me right, as I made it from such a clear looking material. Rested my case, and finally went about to purchase a damn pick from any store...but no! They only sell them in bulks of 4 for RM 10. Hot dang. I seriously don't remember the price of one; but I suppose, nah, forget it. It is high time for me anyways.
But Mom somehow told me there should be a box of my old spectrums lying about in my room amongst my keepsakes...and there I was thinking I lost them years ago when I lost most of my belongings. Oh well...

WESTWORLD

Finally caught up with the season finale of HBO's Westworld and it certainly ranks dead high on this year's Must Watch list. 

Basically adapted from the premise of a (possibly reaching cult status) an old 70's film of the same name written by the late Michael Crichton (and oh, only found out he directed the film too?) and pretty much influenced himself to go on and write his more famous Jurassic Park(s)..(and in which influenced T-800 somehow?)But my, with 40 years or so of film-making advancements and technology; we are certainly in for a treat over the span of 10 and a half hours in its maiden season. 

Sci Fi? Check

Paranoid Androids? Check

Mystery? Check

Western? Check

Nudity? Check

Violence? Check

Existentialism? Check

Nolan-esque twist? Check

Awesome music score by Ramin Djawadi of GoT fame? Yes Please!

Rodrigo Santoro? Check oo-la-la

Perfect cast, no doubt with (Sir) Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris in their roles; and the rest of the casts as 'hosts' both at times acting splendidly as 'robot' and in their 'Westworld roles' , notably lead Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright and Thandie Newton..even a certain ex Mrs Musk shines in her role as a 'host' too.

One does note the many references to gaming world rather than a theme park, as with so many feels of it being 'open-world', easter-egg, NPC's, level hardness, and in The Man in Black that eventually got consumed to be sucked-into being as the completionist gamer. It also serves a healthy dose of trivia in recognizing the few auto-piano (ain't sure what that contraption should be called) tunes of modern classics such as the 2 Radiohead songs and Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun.

I suppose if you are quite familiar with either Nolan brothers' style of writing, (plus, as a series you get a bit more time to figure things out along the way,anyway) you should be able to predict the many twists to the plot(s) and this certainly is the most rewarding imho, as the reveal(s) were stacked up in a very balanced story-telling and always, leave you wanting for more. The pledge and the prestige.

Until next year (or is it 2018?) then, "Cease All Motor Functions"

CW-verse | Arrow-verse Mega Crossover 2016

My, goosebumps all over when they assembled. and many times over too! Then it was Arrow's 100th episode that assembled various casts that has been 'dead' to the timeline that paid homage to the comics (plus 2 cast members that looks a weird yet passable CG; must be scheduling I think) and then tying most of the lingering subplots from all 4 (well, 3 to be exact, nothing from Supergirl I think, except the few easter eggs) for an awesome finish to the best crossover ever.

Tonnes of popular references, and some were pretty meta (ie: Superman, and Tommy being a doctor in Chicago) and they sneaked in Princess Bride, yet again.
Earlier this year when Barry crossed over to Supergirl; it was pretty apparent those 2 had chemistry; (Grant Gustin is just that charming and complements everyone else in almost any scene, right?)but this time around I suppose Melissa Benoist gels with everyone she shares screentime with. and it is indeed a welcome addition to get bit-cameos from the other characters, both on their own show and every bit involves everyone someway or the other. Now that's some level that the showrunners achieved (or in their words, level of insanity every year for crossovers), so you DCEU executive jackrabbits should be smart to learn something you know. I am waiting eagerly for the stink to hit with your next few slated releases, and its companion Full Versions video releases.

Of course, it would've been more of a global scale if every other unaccounted heroes/vigilantes and or villains showed up for the final fight with that world threat..but I suspect we might get that trick later on with the years (or at least DC would stay the eff away from having a say about CWverse)

Can't wait for next week when they resume with the new repercussions of this week moving on.

"To things not being normal, 
To life being full"