I am a gamer

I like to play video games. I like that you can have an interactive story or arena to play in to your heart’s content, and I truly believe that we are still scratching at what can be done with it. With studies not being able to prove that games are making kids violent it seems like it would be a brand new world despite being in the eighth generation of systems.

Then I realize what is going on in games and some of the things combined with how some people are acting just makes me think how far we have gone. Then I hear about the Target issue which I think was not well handled by anyone involved but the gamers because when you have a country of 24,000,000 and an a petition of 40,000 gets something removed you have to wonder. Is it the opinion of the many or of the extremist? There are other places I could take that point including events out of gaming in my own country and I really want to but I try to keep this place for the most part a no politics zone and with as many times as I scratch my head it is getting more difficult.

Then we have the whole dirty publicity issue with gamergate and the rise of extremist wearing the feminism code like a bad overcoat. For those who may not agree with the previous statement I will take a point from the dictionary.

feminism

noun
1. the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) an organized movement for the attainment of such rights for women.

I have no problem with the word and what it means. When you talk to people who believe the fairness is only restricted by how far the pendulum may swing the other way then you have lost not only the point of fairness but also of feminism if you are one of these extremists. I could be mad and rip points apart, what good would it do so let me say this to help break down the wall a little bit.
We have different views. It is okay. You will not agree with me and I will not agree with all the world an on any point. You don’t need to. If you do not like my opinion though you can have a nice conversation with the person instead of dragging everyone in your pool of opponents through the mud verbally. It doesn’t do much except show that you were not prepared or just don’t have the access to the resources to back up your point.
I started out as a gamer reading the walkthrough to Crash Bandicoot game while my uncle and my cousin played through trying to get all the secrets. I had a Super Nintendo, but before then I just wasn’t interested then I saw what could be and I loved it. It made me think about things I never had before of aspects of life I never had before and overall it made me a better person. Oh by the way here is the end notes on the finding by the American Psychological Association in case you think there is no evidence and don’t feel like reading the war and peace sized report in full.
I am a gamer. I am an equalist. I am a writer. I have a headache and now I am going to work on my writing a little more. Hope you enjoyed the thoughts. Later everyone.

The legend of the brother’s shields

For those who had never heard of it there was a show in the nineties called Legends of the Hidden Temple and me growing up in this era I wanted to be on it. Never did though, but trying to put myself together from a bout of flu I remember the fables that I loved sometimes factual and sometimes all hot air it was all fun explaining why some artifact was important before informing the would be explorers where in his temple held the item. So since I never made it to the temple (If I did I wanted to rock the parrot or snake jerseys) I thought the next best thing was to make a short legend about a random artifact that could have been in the temple one day.

legends_of_the_hidden_temple_silver_snakes_t-shirt_thumbnail

During the late twelve hundreds William Wallace was on his way to freeing Scotland from the invading British. Under his command where a pair of brothers whose abilities on the battlefield differed as much as their personalities. Despite that they were proud fighting for their home both armed with their trademark shields. To know each other on the battlefield the younger brother who worked often commanding the first waves would add a second spike on his targe. His brother often responsible for the platoon behind would carry a tower shield much heavier then the targe taken from a fallen British knight.

During the battle of Stirling castle the numbers were against the brothers and Wallace before the older brother got an idea.

“If we can hold them to the bridge we won’t get over powered by their numbers. They would have to come to us in smaller numbers.”

Wallace agreed with the plan soon making it so as long as they held the bridge they would not fall. As the battle began men came like waves against the shore. The Scots had to take the castle and this was their only chance. Holding the front line before charging he saw his brother come up with the tower shield he had made his own.

“Brother, what are you doing don’t you have to watch your men?”

“The bridge will not allow any of yours to escape if I do so I decided to come up here to help you out.”

Soon the battle begun as the British began to push against the warriors. Wave after wave of fighting begun to wear on the men it was a full day of fighting before the sounds of swords breaking began to ring in the air. Before nightfall new soldiers brought more weapons while the men pushing the bridge began to grow desperate.

“Push your shields. If we go down it will be for Scotland!!” The younger brother yelled.

Heavy with arrows the younger brother soon felt shade as the tower shield taking the moment to pull the arrows that his dirge had caught the large tower shield gave him enough time to repair his own shield and finish the battle. By morning of the second day the castle had been taken against an overwhelming British force with little left of their own weapons but the shields that took the castle. The brothers were promoted to full commanders while their shields made their way to the temple. Where they can be found in the tomb of the tomb of the ancient kings….

Nanowrimo Attempt 2014

So for those reading this I had tried to go and finish nanowrimo with nothing more then an old story a couple pages long and a wonder if I could. Between computer issues, personal issues and other things that made me lose my focus I got to just about 21,000 words. that does not make it a loss it just did not get to my goal in the time allotted so here are some things I learned about this so if any of my readers want to try it they are better equipped.

1. Basic outline – The easiest part of typing the story as far as I did was to take the pages and read them. Normally my writing is very rushed one to the next. Boom, boom, boom. Having an outline set allows you to have a basic form to go by and that form can change as you see fit but you would still at least have the knowledge of where thing a would connect to on thing b even if thing c and b don’t meet you can still make it in to a skeleton you like for your story.

2. Focus – Give yourself some time every day and leave yourself a note, write it in your schedule, give yourself a time where you can just sit down and write it out only coming out in the case of serious emergency or mob en route to your writing spot. In short let everything else go and just let it be.

3. Learn how you work – Often times each person has different things, little nuances that can make their own efforts easier or harder. Like me typing with my big ‘ole ham hands can be hard sometimes unless I either stretch or find a bigger key board which I don’t think exists in many places. Either way, knowing how you work and how to best play off the positives while hiding the negatives will make your writing time more breezy less enraging.

4. Go in with a vision – If it is to get rich selling books then that will be more on the problem of advertising and quality control which you can only do half of that while you write. If you want to finish a full novel as your goal then this is a great way to at least get a jump on it. If you do not do it in thirty days then you will have a major portion complete by the end of the month.

5. Finish the story – Even if you are serious about competing against the dead line then make sure you have everything needed nearby when you write. If you get down about not making the time limit then try to pick yourself up and finish the story. Because the worst thing you can do is leave the story half finished after you put so much work in it.

A word for all readers

So for the month of December I hope all of you have a good holiday. I am most likely going to still be spinning my wheels. Hey gotta improve so no problems with that. If you noticed this is not on my usual schedule of blog posts well I am actually going to try to do two a week. Because of how much progress on things are going with the recipes I want to get better content so I think pushing myself to twice a week may be something to try. Call it an experiment that we all are going to be a part of. Nothing too weird so no need to run the Dexter’s lab theme to level up your snark. As of my typing there are more then two hundred people reading this and the funny part is that the majority comes from people I have never met.

For those who know me then thank you for dealing with me when sometimes my little projects have bothered you. For those who don’t know me other then some guy shooting his mouth off on the internet trying to make something some odd seven and deuce luck turn in to something worth keeping. I will continue to have recipes on here, I like to cook so that will happen. I have not been doing as many updates on writing or other projects so what I am going to do is simply just try to do more. Two posts a week starting from this one. One as an update on some projects without having to decide on one or the other on the recipes. That does not mean a recipe will be every week mind you it just is a good chance. I found that if I keep things open I can keep to it a lot easier then saying it outright (is that the same for everyone or is it just me?)

So what is the experiment I mentioned before? Well, I want to see how I am doing as this blog was one of those things I just jumped in trying to do. So I want each person just to tell one other person about a post or a recipe from this blog. If you have something you want me to tell the people I talk to then let me know, and I will do my best to return the favor.

Happy holidays folks.

Fried Tofu with Teriyaki Sauce

For this dish it is suggested that you have some cooked rice to pair it with. For this you will need the following ingredients.
Serves 5-7 with rice

101_0836

Flour for dusting and Oil for frying
A block of Extra Firm Tofu (16 oz)
1/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Rice Wine Vinegar
Shredded sushi seaweed for garnish

Pour your oil in the narrowest pot you have as to save on the amount of oil needed put it on medium heat. It will take a couple moments to get to frying temperature. Next put a cup of flour in a wide bowl, and set aside. Press your tofu lightly with a paper towel so it will remove as much of the moisture as possible before cutting in to cubes at an inch squared. After cutting, check the oil by pinching a small amount of flour in to the oil if you get a fair reaction that looks just like a soup on a low simmer then you can begin. Dredge them in the flower in batches before dropping them in to the oil you don’t want to do it all at once because that will drop the temperature of the oil and for most stove top burners you will not be able to hold temp without splitting them in to at least two batches. I did mine in four batches total, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Let them fry until golden brown or a light manilla color for those who know their around an office better.

101_0837

The bubbles don’t have to be big you just want to make sure that when they come out they can drain. rinse and repeat with all batches until all the tofu is drying off. For the teriyaki sauce take a small pot and put your sugar, vinegar and soy in it before bringing it up to a simmer making sure to stir until the sugar has been dissolved and let simmer for a couple minutes until all the flavors meld together or about three or four minutes.

101_0841

I got a little impatient and cranked up to high which you can do if you want to watch it for a minute or two. You do not want the sugar to burn or else you will need to try again. After your tofu has dried appropriately you can use your sauce to dip into or pour over depending on how you like your sauces to be done. Some people are picky, no judging here.

101_0842

I got my tofu placed on cooked white rice and seaweed around it and from here I just poured the sauce over the top and dug in. The picture didn’t come so clear as I had hoped but its tofu blocks on rice. So I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you liked what you saw give some of my other dishes a chance their in the cooking category on my blog.

Have a good day everyone, oh and before I forget starting in December their will hopefully be more posts I am getting a little bit more comfortable doing this as well as the youtube videos if you watch those link is to the side. I am going to try to up my game to do two a week I feel like it can be done. Wish me luck.

Final Fantasy VII : Update of Cerberus

Good god I love having technical issues. Just when I think things are going to go well for the projects I have started something happens and despite saving I get hit with the one two combo of less then stellar save frequency and corrupting files. It just makes me stay on guard for everything else.

A little too sarcastic? Sorry ’bout it.

So with everything going sour for the odd moment techwise here is what’s going on otherwise.

Nanowrimo has had me hit the wall over the past week although I have gotten to 20,000 words. I may be able to make it up but with personal things giving me some trouble and I’m not focusing like I should. Worst case scenario  though I will finish the story because it will be nice to have it done and get another book publishing started.

I had a fried and marinated tofu dish all set up on it but because of the tech issue I noted above the post I had saved just is gone and will be next week. Joy to the world. The holiday season is coming up and I will most likely use it to catch up on my sleep. Work supposedly starts on the twenty fifth and I am actually psyched to work there and while it is not what I wanted originally it is still something nice.

Fried Rice –

Hey everyone, time for another simple recipe this time to use up any rice you may have this works best after the rice has cooled. You will need the following.

101_0828

3 large eggs
1/4 C chopped green onions
2 qt of long grain white rice

Of course you want to have your seasonings of choice on hand. In a non stick pan on medium high heat start by cracking your eggs in to the pan until they begin to get opaque. Next is to toss your rice mixing the two together until the eggs are almost completely cooked. Picture below for example. Make sure to keep your rice moving as to not get over cooked in places this dish from start to finish takes less then five minutes if the rice is already cooked.

101_0831

Last is to add your green onion as well as any seasonings you prefer, making sure to mix everything up with your spat of choice.From there just plate up Mine in the pic has a little bit of chili powder for color and a touch of heat. Shredded seaweed works well, and of course you can always just grab a spoon and dig in.

101_0834

If you do not want to use or do not have a non stick pan then just a drop of oil is needed before putting the eggs in. From there just go for it.

Next, two recipes on this blog will be a tofu dish fried and with sauce over rice once again. Rice was on sale so I got a big bag to last me for a while. The other recipe will be a dish I actually took as a challenge / idea from someone on twitter. Breakfast cupcakes. Me being a stickler for things got to be a problem there, but over all the dish tasted good and was actually very good for breakfast. If you

Ox Baker: A childhood hero

For those who do not know I am a pro wrestling fan one of many things. Back when I was younger I felt I was not doing enough good I had this feeling that I was the bad guy in a world populated by people who want to be heroes. I will do whatever to get some jobs done so it made perfect sense to me back then. Kind of a downer really back then until I heard of a guy named Ox Baker.

A guy who ran life like it was good to be bad and a resume that said he did what he wanted when he wanted. Nearly six and a half feet tall and over three hundred pounds he was a guy that had a wild eyed stare like getting in his way was signing your own trip to the hospital. I never got to see any of his work in person. He is notable for training people after he retired one of which being the Undertaker. I was about thirteen when I looked up a lot of his work in the territories including when he incited a riot. His finisher, the heart punch was the last thing felt in the ring before two people died. Neither actually did of course, but he took the heat and made everyone love to hate him. People paid money to see him get decked and he did not mind as long as he and the people were happy at the end of the show.

It may be weird for someone with a cooking background, but Ox Baker had self published a cookbook of his own among many other projects he finished including writing and recording songs and making coloring books. He wanted to do something then he did it. Loud and boistrous while wearing a black hat for those who watch westerns, but only being the true bad guy when he needed to be. It was kind of refreshing because he did those things for the reason of his wanting to. He also did some acting bit parts including one as the antagonist against Kurt Russell in Escape From New York. He died a while ago and I just want to say my piece. He was awesome.

He died on the 20th of October at 80 years of age after complications of all things a heart attack.

Also if anyone can find his cookbook and they want to get rid of it let me know because I would like to have a copy.

R.I.P Ox, From A Fan

What is an unhipster

Hipsters are defined as a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream. At least by Google standards so with that in mind let me explain why this whole thing is called Unhipster in Portland.

In short I am not following fads. I barely know enough about fads to pick them apart I just focus from one thing to another and continue practicing something. Drawing to writing to learning to this to that to slantways and so on. Portland seemingly is gaining a reputation as the hipster capitol of the U.S. Which, in all honesty makes me want to drive my head through a desk at the speed of light. Their are great things here though and plenty of people just a little bit strange, eccentric, and altogether fun to have a drink with.

I just kinda do things and when I finish them I don’t know what to do when the goal is in my hands. Except get better and continue. My clothes usually revolve around my work outfit, my comfortable outfit, and the I need to do something special outfit. I don’t own a stitch of plaid although I own about as much black fabric as a hot topic that went out of business.

Unhipsters are just people that are what they are good, bad or meh. So join us and be yourselves. Besides how hard is it to join a group that is defined as an un-something.You just have to not be something in this case a fake, fad following, flagellating figure with few flickers of full blown original fantasy. Alliteration is fun by the way and is a writing device I like to use. Anyway if you are not one of those multiple f-word describing targets then welcome to the club.

You are an unhipster and you are one of us. Unless these convenient graphs describes you.

Link on the word graph by the way.

Game Day Quesadillas

I am more of a sunny day or in the Oregonian case the rainy day sports fan. However, one must have some game day grub that is easy to eat so let’s go with a good quesadilla. I make quesadillas full size with two tortillas each so a full one can get you eight pieces of a good size. In these pictures I am using an eight inch tortilla here.

bacon quesy ingrde

Ingredients:

2 tortillas per quesadilla
2 pieces of bacon or 1/4 C of refried beans
2 slices golden cheddar
2 T chopped green onions

The secret comes in the cooking we will be doing this in pan and it take close to five minutes on medium heat. Cooking it in pan is closest to the flattop stove that most restaurants. You want to have your bottom layer with the cheese in their first so that everything melts together. Doing it this way also allows the tortilla to crisp up a little before cutting in to it and that means less on you when your team is fighting for the win.

bacon quesa 3

Flip it over when it looks like this.

bacon quesa 5

Finish it up.

For the bean and cheese quesadilla I like adding some green onion to it to give it just a little more aroma. Make sure to spread it as evenly as possible without having an O.C.D panic attack.

When your food is done cut it up and use the green onions to garnish. It adds just a little bit of aroma to the overall dish and aroma is the one sense that can make you hungry better then your taste buds. Cut in to eight pieces like a pizza or four if you know some of the hungrier guys are coming around. For twelve inch tortillas you want to go to three basic slices of golden cheddar. If you don’t get the sliced stuff then you want about 1/3 C shredded or diced small.

A little bit of ketchup or your favorite salsa on the side and this makes a good snack to watch a game, play a game, even make a game of your trying to be or already are an indie developer.

final quesa

Now when your cooking for yourself you’re not going to be so finicky in the exact placement of garnishes. That will be for another blog post. Have a good one.