Health, Homework, Movies, Thai Food, etc.
I have suddenly lost faith in my ability to make an interesting post. Something about the subject line knocked the wind out of me, I guess. Must be too specific, but hey, it's what I intended to write about...
So. Health. I've been astonishingly sick for the last two weeks, having been struck down out of the blue one night by something that eventually came pretty close to pneumonia (this is indubitably jpathos's fault. Despite the fact that he, y'know, lives in Florida). Anyway, it took me the first week to realize that I was not recovering at all by myself and to begin to suspect that I had a bacterial problem and not just a virus. At this point, I went to the doctor. He stocked me up on antibiotics, and a day or two into the medication, I could breath, sleep, and function out from under the influence of NyQuil (NyQuil, although an amazing experience, gets old after the first 24 hours). Now, I'm doing pretty well: I even went back to school yesterday! The worst part of this whole deal has actually just been the brain fog that being so sick created. I'm still a bit zombie-ish, but slowly, very slowly, I am beginning to think like a normal human being again.
Along with going back to school, however, comes the realization of how much I missed. A week and a half of no school for me equates to missing every class three times, except for the creative writing workshop, which is only once a week, so I only missed one class there-- but for everything else, I'm out three sessions. This might not seem like that much, but really, it is. It doesn't help that we're into the last two weeks of the quarter, so everything is coming to a head. Exams out the whazzoo. I have so much homework to catch up on this weekend, it's nuts.
But anyway, back to the interesting stuff. While sick, I could watch movies. That was about all I could do, so I did a lot of it. Luckily, some family friends had lent us a pretty good selection of films the last time we'd seen them: over a few days, Adam and I covered Whale Rider, Himalaya, Ghengis Blues, Winged Migration, The Man Who Would Be King, and Hotel Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda was... earth shaking. All I could really think afterwards was, "I'm glad they make kids watch this in high school!". On a completely different note, Winged Migration made me so happy. There was some really beautiful footage-- also some very sad footage, now that I think back on it-- and mostly, it was just avian eye candy. Pretty geese. Ridiculous heron-things. Very fun to watch.
We also started watching Lost, at the suggestion of vantid . I understand some of the hype now, although I've only seen the beginning of the first season. It's not a bad series. Or at least, it's a very intriguing series, and makes you love the characters. A lot. Except Sawyer, I fucking hate him. I think Charlie or Saeed (however you spell that) is my favorite. One of them. Maybe Saeed more. Dunno. I should really figure out how to spell that.
Also, I watched every single Tales of Mere Existence video on youtube. They are excellent. Very recommend. Go look it up.
About thai food: Last night, while helping my brother with a power-point presentation on Thailand, we came across a website full of thai recipes. It tells you how to make EVERYTHING GOOD. It is HERE . Tomorrow, I'm hoping to convince my dad that going on a quest for things like galangal root, curry powder, tamarind water, thai eggplant and coconut cream would be a good idea. It shouldn't be too hard-- we're all pretty starved for good, inexpensive thai food around here, so making it at home would be a great exercise. We even have a wok, apparently! I am excited!
The biggest hindrance, of course, is finding all the ingredients listed. Most items are fairly straight-forward: coriander, turmeric, coconut milk, shallots, no problem. It's things like the thai eggplant that I'm worried about. Our little asian market, Rice 'n' Spice, only goes so far. However, we shall see! I'm hoping to make pad thai, cucumber salad, either green or yellow curry, pad see-ew, and maybe chicken satay, although I'm not sure we have a way to grill it. That sounds like a decent meal, I think. Oh, and I would love to make spring rolls! Aah, but this is getting awfully ambitious-- we'll see how it goes.
So anyway, I'll probably take pictures of this whole deal, and post them here. It'll be fun, and if we're lucky, it might even taste good.
I think that's it for tonight. Great epic post of doom!
So. Health. I've been astonishingly sick for the last two weeks, having been struck down out of the blue one night by something that eventually came pretty close to pneumonia (this is indubitably jpathos's fault. Despite the fact that he, y'know, lives in Florida). Anyway, it took me the first week to realize that I was not recovering at all by myself and to begin to suspect that I had a bacterial problem and not just a virus. At this point, I went to the doctor. He stocked me up on antibiotics, and a day or two into the medication, I could breath, sleep, and function out from under the influence of NyQuil (NyQuil, although an amazing experience, gets old after the first 24 hours). Now, I'm doing pretty well: I even went back to school yesterday! The worst part of this whole deal has actually just been the brain fog that being so sick created. I'm still a bit zombie-ish, but slowly, very slowly, I am beginning to think like a normal human being again.
Along with going back to school, however, comes the realization of how much I missed. A week and a half of no school for me equates to missing every class three times, except for the creative writing workshop, which is only once a week, so I only missed one class there-- but for everything else, I'm out three sessions. This might not seem like that much, but really, it is. It doesn't help that we're into the last two weeks of the quarter, so everything is coming to a head. Exams out the whazzoo. I have so much homework to catch up on this weekend, it's nuts.
But anyway, back to the interesting stuff. While sick, I could watch movies. That was about all I could do, so I did a lot of it. Luckily, some family friends had lent us a pretty good selection of films the last time we'd seen them: over a few days, Adam and I covered Whale Rider, Himalaya, Ghengis Blues, Winged Migration, The Man Who Would Be King, and Hotel Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda was... earth shaking. All I could really think afterwards was, "I'm glad they make kids watch this in high school!". On a completely different note, Winged Migration made me so happy. There was some really beautiful footage-- also some very sad footage, now that I think back on it-- and mostly, it was just avian eye candy. Pretty geese. Ridiculous heron-things. Very fun to watch.
We also started watching Lost, at the suggestion of vantid . I understand some of the hype now, although I've only seen the beginning of the first season. It's not a bad series. Or at least, it's a very intriguing series, and makes you love the characters. A lot. Except Sawyer, I fucking hate him. I think Charlie or Saeed (however you spell that) is my favorite. One of them. Maybe Saeed more. Dunno. I should really figure out how to spell that.
Also, I watched every single Tales of Mere Existence video on youtube. They are excellent. Very recommend. Go look it up.
About thai food: Last night, while helping my brother with a power-point presentation on Thailand, we came across a website full of thai recipes. It tells you how to make EVERYTHING GOOD. It is HERE . Tomorrow, I'm hoping to convince my dad that going on a quest for things like galangal root, curry powder, tamarind water, thai eggplant and coconut cream would be a good idea. It shouldn't be too hard-- we're all pretty starved for good, inexpensive thai food around here, so making it at home would be a great exercise. We even have a wok, apparently! I am excited!
The biggest hindrance, of course, is finding all the ingredients listed. Most items are fairly straight-forward: coriander, turmeric, coconut milk, shallots, no problem. It's things like the thai eggplant that I'm worried about. Our little asian market, Rice 'n' Spice, only goes so far. However, we shall see! I'm hoping to make pad thai, cucumber salad, either green or yellow curry, pad see-ew, and maybe chicken satay, although I'm not sure we have a way to grill it. That sounds like a decent meal, I think. Oh, and I would love to make spring rolls! Aah, but this is getting awfully ambitious-- we'll see how it goes.
So anyway, I'll probably take pictures of this whole deal, and post them here. It'll be fun, and if we're lucky, it might even taste good.
I think that's it for tonight. Great epic post of doom!