Whimsical Stars Wars Art

September 1st, 2010 § 0

I can’t help but be drawn to anything that incorporates Star Wars. Came across some lovely whimsical art from James Hance. Above are two samples. Check out more at his website.

The Week That Was Digest: July 12-18

July 18th, 2010 § 0

This week was cottage week so I wasn’t online in my usual way. This didn’t mean I was disconnected (kept my online fix going with a 3G iPad) but swimming, lounging, eating, drinking and reading pretty much filled my agenda. So this week’s digest will be a short one.

Like I said, it was cottage week. My family and I made our our way to a lovely rented cottage on Shadow Lake nestled by the small town of Norland in the Kawartha Lakes area. A great week of R&R! Here’s some images from our trip.

Nerf guns have come a long way since I was a kid. Check this out.

Optimus Prime was sighted in Beijing, but most people were disinterested – they were looking for Megan Fox. And speaking of Megan Fox, how did Brian Austin Green manage to get her to marry him?

As I write this I am also watching my favorite of the original Star Wars movies – The Empire Strikes Back.

We returned from the cottage to our backyard dug up. We are having a concrete foundation added to the rear of the house. One of those expensive home projects that no one will ever see. Sigh.

Made this black cod with hoisin and ginger sauces tonight for dinner. Very yummy. Even Owen was scarfing down the fish!

And my final note. If you like sci-fi literature I highly recommend reading The Windup Girl. It’s a view of a not-so-impossible  dystopian future after the fuel-based economy has collapsed and the economy is calorie-based. From the setting to elements of the plot concept, it invoked Bladerunner. It is one of the better books I have read in a while. Next-up is The Gone-Away World.

That’s it. Ciao.

Our cottage week

July 17th, 2010 § 0

After a year hiatus, we got back to renting a cottage in the lovely Kawartha Lakes area of Ontario. Jen, Owen, Loki and myself joined our friends Stephen, Maureen and Emma (their dog) for some sun, swimming, good eating and general R&R. Gut-busting portions of famous Kawartha Dairy ice cream, surprisingly excellent Thai food in Minden, great swimming, superb cooked meals, enthralling reading (I read Windup Girl) and, of course, mosquito bites were among the highlights of the trip. It really is nice to step out of the city every now and then.

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The Week That Was Digest: July 5 – July 11

July 11th, 2010 § 0

Alright boys and girls. Sunday evening brings you a special edition from a beautiful cottage on Shadow Lake 6 located in the cottage country of Haliburton County, near the very small town of Norland. This is day 2 and it has been a rather nice break so far. Here’s to 5 more days of the same. But let’s now turn our attention to the week that was.

With basketball spoiled brats grabbing the major headlines, there was sad news in the NHL world that Bob Probert passed away at the tender young age of 45. I am not a fan of goons generally but Probert was able to grab some respect from me. But the booze and drugs lifestyle apparently did him in.

With soaring temperatures hitting almost 45 degrees with the humidex, parts of Toronto experienced power outages for part of the day on Monday. With memories of the 2003 blackout still lingering, headlines surged (pardon the pun) discussing our aging power infrastructure.

After defeating the surprisingly good Germans in the semi-final, Andrés Iniesta’s goal with only a few minutes remaining in the final overtime period gave Spain a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands to become the World Cup Champions. It was a while coming and a deserved win. The match was not a classic in my opinion, had moments of brilliance  but most importantly, the annoying Robben is denied victory. I like many of the Dutch players but Robben’s constant whining (despite his brilliant skills) made me detest him. Congratulations to the Red Fury!

This article states the obvious.

Prince declares the Internet to be over and declaring himself to be a complete idiot at the same time.

I do have other personal news but this week is not the right time. Instead, here are some images of the first two days at the cottage. Hope you have had a great week.

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‘The Week That Was’ Digest: June 28 – July 4, 2010

July 4th, 2010 § 0

Alright, after much consideration on my part, I have decided to dive into creating a weekly digest of items that I have found worthy of noting – whether it’s stuff that happens in my life or in the world generally. My primary motivation for doing this is so I write more to this site. Sure, I have Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to do something similar but I find that those tools are not designed to aggregate and be an online archive of my ramblings. And whether anyone reads this site is actually irrelevant to me – I view Onelazyeye as my online diary for me to make ‘notes’ on my life. It is primarily for me and maybe others might find it useful or interesting from time-to-time. So here goes.

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My Favourite Mac ‘n’ Cheese Recipe

June 29th, 2010 § 0

Just finished making a batch of mac ‘n’ cheese to be served up as dinner tomorrow night. As many of you know, pre-cooking meals insinuates itself as a behaviour when you have kids.

This is now the 3rd or 4th time I have used this particular recipe and I have to say it has now become my favourite! Relatively simple, this 3-cheese mac ‘n’ cheese is sure to delight everyone. I found it on Epicurious but below is my slight variation.

3-Cheese Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter plus more for baking dish
  • 3 cups sliced large shallots (about 6)
  • 12 ounces tricolour spiral macaroni (3 cups)
  • 1 1/2 cups half and half
  • 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce (such as Cholula)
  • 2 1/2 cups (packed) coarsely grated extrasharp cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)
  • 1/2 cup gruyere or asiago
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup crumbled soft fresh goat cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, covered, until shallots are deep brown, stirring often, about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook macaroni in large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally; drain well. Reserve pan. Bring half and half and hot sauce to simmer in same saucepan over medium heat. Toss cheddar  and gruyere/asiago cheese and flour in medium bowl to coat; add to half and half mixture. Whisk until sauce is smooth and just returns to simmer, about 2 minutes. Mix in pasta. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread pasta mixture in prepared dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs over pasta. Top with shallots, then goat cheese.  Add a little extra cheddar and asiago cheese on top. Maybe even some romano or parmesan cheese (ok, this could technically make it a 4-cheese mac ‘n’ cheese!). Sprinkle with pepper. Bake until heated through, about 18 minutes. Let cool a little before serving. Tastes even better the next day. Add diced vegetables like carrots and green beans to add a little more nutritional value for the kids.

Bringing the computer to my TV

June 29th, 2010 § 0

Rowmote-website-button

I have been looking for a cost-effective and robust way to bring better media capabilities to my HD LCD TV as well as some light internet capabilities. I am not interested in getting an Xbox 360 and use it’s excellent Media Centre software. I was thinking of an Apple TV but too limited in not letting me hook up an external hard drive with DiVX files nor allowing any web surfing capabilities. I do not want a Windows-based machine connected to my TV despite Windows Media Centre being a good piece of software. I am done with Windows-based computers (that is a separate rant for another day). I am also not enough of a geek or tinkerer to use a Linux-based PC. So I have been hooking up my Macbook Pro to watch the various movies and TV shows I have. But the problem with that is that I have to get up from the couch and go to the TV where my MBP is connected to change volume or open a new movie file. And launching applications or surfing the web is not really possible. Sure, I could use a wireless keyboard but then there was not a trackpad to move the cursor around.

So the current solution, while no extra cost, was not all that efficient for effective media consumption or web surfing on the TV.

That changed this week.

I discovered an app that enabled my iPad (also works for iPhone and Touch) to become a remote for the MBP. It allows me to control the cursor on the MBP via a simulated touchpad on the iPad, adjust volume, access Front Row for media consumption (including my iTunes and iPhoto libraries), surf the web through the browser of my choice and launch any application in my Dock. So what is the name of this app that helps the iPad be so magical? It’s called Rowmote Pro.

Rowmote Pro costs $4.99 and is worth every penny. Aside from purchasing and downloading the app, I had to download and install Rowmote software for my MBP. This software has to be running when I have the MBP connected to the TV in order to use the iPad as a remote. Simple and easy to setup, I was up and running (well actually slouched on my couch) in less than 5 minutes. The app itself is really simple to use and quite intuitive. My only criticism is that the black and grey colour scheme is a little on the dark side. I experienced no lags or issues in my use so far. And you can even switch to another app on the iPad while watching a movie. So I can use the iPad for other purposes while using it to control the MBP/TV combo. And it works over your wireless network so you don’t need line-of-sight for infrared. Brilliant.

There is a $0.99 version of Rowmote that does not have some of the features. To be honest, for $5, I just went for the Pro version. I am really happy with Rowmote. What I will be looking for next is an app that can turn my iPad into a universal remote for the TV so I can also control the cable channels. However, these tend to be much more expensive and require additional hardware to be purchased. I rarely watch cable content anymore so maybe my quest is unnecessary.

If you happen to have a Mac/PC-TV combo and an iPad, this is worth checking out.

Rowmote Pro (iTunes store link)

 

Rocking the Do

June 14th, 2010 § 0

owenbighairI am envious of my son’s curly, thick and long hair (and before anyone who hasn’t seen me recently jumps to any conclusions, I still have hair – lots of it but just straight). This is a pic from the weekend at the Brickworks.

Beautiful Shuttle Launch Image

June 11th, 2010 § 0

Have seen several shuttle launches over the years but this image is truly one of the best ones of the launch that I have come across. Great perspective, clarity and proportion. This was the final flight (launched last monrth) of the space shuttle Atlantis. Image is from the U.S. Air Force website. Click on the picture if you would like to view/download a larger version.

shuttle

End of my car-less era

June 8th, 2010 § 0

2 years, 3 months and 3 days. If only I had been able to hold out for that much longer I could have reached a longtime goal of mine to not own a car before I was 40. Alas, I fell short. On Thursday I will join the ranks of car owners. The realities of having a young child (and a dog) were just too much to rely on AutoShare, public transit and car rentals alone.

Dont get me wrong. I have nothing against cars at all. It was just rather liberating, in a way, to not have one and also not feel any loss in our lifestyle. To be honest, if kids werent in the picture we still wouldnt have a car.

As a result I am sad and excited about this purchase. Sad for the afore mentioned reasons and excited at how much easier a car will make my life. I am not a car guy so it will be interesting to see whether car ownership changes this aspect of myself or has no impact. We shall see.

Now back to finding an inexpensive trunk liner for the car on the interwebs. Ah the joys …

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