My job currently is to blueprint each set, see what materials we will need (ahhh guesstimates) and to start building the first set. I don’t want to talk about what the sets are, or what my designs are, because… well… come see the bloody show if you want to find out, but I will talk about how hard they are going to be to build.

I have my work cut out for me, but I’m excited. This will be extremely fun, and I had a blast working on the Arsenic and Old Lace set, figuring out how to solve some of the… challenges we had (ah building a second story and grandfather clock…). It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to tackle some of the challenges in these sets either.

So if you see me complaining about trying to build something insane, keep inmind why… and remind me of this post :).

~Ian

The group I play D&D with have quickly become good friends to Crista and I, and we’ve started playing two nights a week. It’s good times, usually with some amusing antics. On one of the two nights we play, I am DMing a game, and I’ve been spending a lot of time working on that game. I’m calling it “Darker Tombs” and so far they’ve been fighting a decent amount of undead, and had some interesting puzzles to figure out. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to throw at them this week, so it should be fun. Once they finish the first adventure I will probably post a summary of it on here.

I’ve also been working on becoming employed, which is not as easy as it sounds, but I’ll save that whole story till I get the details ironed out (which should be tomorrow *crosses fingers*).

In addition to both of these things, the school season here has started (today in fact), which means the new Caesar Rodney Thespian Societies season is beginning, which means I’m back to work building sets. My next post will be more in detail about this, so I wont babble much about it, but let’s just say I have my work cut out for me. All I’ll say is that the plays this seasons are Peter Pan and The Sound of Vomit Music. While I rather dislike The Sound of Music it’s one of my father’s favorites, and it will be a great show… and I love Peter Pan, so… woo!

So that’s what’s been keeping my busy these days, and will be keeping me busy for the next few months, but I’ll be posting more, promise.

~Ian

Tonight I made spaghetti sauce. I make it quite frequently, as I am often told that I make excellent spaghetti sauce, but tonight was the first time I’ve made it with 99% fresh ingredients (alas, I don’t have fresh mushrooms or green chilies).  So for those of you curious on making home-made spaghetti sauce, or those of you curious about some of the ingredients I use… this is for you.

First you take a large pot… very large, you can only make this in massive portions, so be prepared to freeze some or eat a ton of spaghetti for a while. Next, add a liberal dose of olive oil, extra virgin preferred (as in most cases /badpun). Next, add onion, I prefer red but it’s your choice, fresh garlic (always fresh garlic, I only use powdered garlic for specific things, or to top off taste if I don’t feel it has enough towards the end). Turn the burner on so that you brown the onion and garlic a bit before adding the meat. I prefer ground sausage, though hamburger is alright too if you aren’t a fan of the pig. Tonight I used turkey sausage for a change of pace. The amount you use is up to you, I prefer a good amount of meat in my sauce, so I’ll use anywhere from 1.5 - 2 pounds of meat. Add some seasonings to the meat (I use some cumin, black pepper, a tiny dash of salt, and some cajun seasoning for zing), and you’re ready to brown it.

While the meat is thoroughly browning (it should be completely cooked before you add anything else) you can gather up the rest of the ingredients and begin ze choppin’! The main ingredient in sauce is always tomato, obviously, so if you’re going to use canned I recommend at least one big can of crushed (I use two when I’m making a lot), with one or two of diced to add some chunk to it. Also, a can of tomato paste to thicken it up a bit can never hurt. Tonight I was using fresh tomatoes out of my garden though, so I spent a good while dicing and crushing them. The first thing I did is took a moderate bowl full of cherry tomatoes and crushed those bastards to death with a potato masher. Probably not the best tool for it, but it worked. Then I diced up quite a number of tomatoes, somewhere between 8 and 10 (for those of you who don’t know, most of our tomatoes grow to be larger than my fist, some twice as big, so that’s a lot…). There’s all the tomatoes. The meat wasn’t quite done at this point, so I started the next step: the extra.

This is the part that I love, because it changes every time I make sauce. I always add something else to change the taste up a bit, peppers, corn, whatever. Today I was using peppers from our garden. I cut up a few sweet banana peppers, and two yellow bell peppers (well, one was green because it fell off the vine before it ripened all the way, but whatever). I diced all this up and mixed it into the tomatoes, and then the meat was done. I dumped a can of mushrooms (juice too!) in, as well as a can of green chilies. The green chilies are extremely important. Why? Because they add more kick to sauce than any spice I’ve used to date (without making it inedible from spiciness). ALWAYS add a can of green chilies. After I mix this up I dump in the veggies, which have been sitting patiently waiting to meet their demise in the pot (because dicing them wasn’t enough). Once this is all in I stop and think “does it need anything else before I add spices?” This is a crucial point, because I want to make sure I’ve added every large ingredient that I want in there before I spice it all, making sure it’s all balanced properly. Tonight, I decided that was enough, so I started with the spices. The first of which, is vodka.

“Excuse me Mr. Alcoholic, vodka is not a spice,” you are assuredly screaming at me right now. Relax. Despite the fact that it is odorless and tasteless, vodka adds a certain kick to the sauce that I’ve found is missing without it (dur) and I can never place my finger on. So a liberal dash of vodka is added (usually about a shot worth). And don’t worry, all the alcohol burns out, so you’re not going to get your kiddies hammered at Sunday dinner with this. Next I use a trick Brandon taught me and add some sugar. Sugar doesn’t change the flavor much (unless you add too much) and cuts the acidity of the tomatoes, so that they don’t overpower the sauce. The amount you add should be proportionate to the amount of tomatoes, I usually add about 2 teaspoons. Add some thyme, rosemary, oregano, sweet basil (always sweet basil - another thing I picked up from Brandon), paprika, black pepper, a tiny bit of salt (never overuse salt, it’s the most overused “spice” and I think most people ruin their food because of it), crushed red pepper, some chili powder if you like it spicier, and finally some sage if you  like. All of these spices are eyed, I never measure. So if you feel uncomfortable just tossing spices in willy-nilly (yes, I just wanted to say that), use a teaspoon to add them, 1 or 2 per spice. You can always taste it and add more later if you like… and I’ll tell you I use black pepper more than any other spice. All set? Good, onward!

Now you’re at the cooking stage. The best sauce I’ve made simmered for almost 8 hours before we ate it. I usually don’t plan that far a head, so I usually cook it for 2 hours or so before consumption. On a medium-low temp. this seems to cook it well. Always let it cook for about 45 minutes to an hour before tasting, so that all the flavors are given plenty of time to blend. And always taste it. You never know if it needs something else, almost nothing comes out perfect without a little editing. Tonight when I tasted it the sauce seemed a bit bland, probably due to it being extremely watery from the fresh tomatoes, so I added a can of paste to  thicken it, and double all of my previously added spices. This did the trick, so I set it to cook some more, and about 15 minutes later tasted it again, perfect, almost.

Sauce is very temperamental. You have to have just the right blend, or it will be too strong, or too bland. It’s best to ere on the side of caution than over-spice, because you can always add more. So I pondered for a bit what the sauce was missing, invited my parents to have a taste, get their opinions, and figured it out. More salt. Which wasn’t surprising. So I added a dash or two more, and now it’s perfect.

The amount of time your sauce cooks is up to you. I like to cook it over low temperature for a long time, I feel it heats it and distributes the flavors without ruining any of them, making it a very subtle blend. If you cook it too fast, you ruin it because you lose all the subtle flavors in the mad rush to get it hot. So the slower the better.

Remember, the spices you add are entirely up to you, though I’ll tell you that if you want to make it similar to mine, the most important ones are black pepper, vodka, sweet basil, and rosemary. Also, I always add cumin to the meat I use while it’s browning. Besides those 5 spices, I vary it a bit each time, and you should too. Always experiment. And never use the same ingredients each time, outside of tomatoes of course. Try it with beans and corn one day (remember it’s only chili if you call it chili) or peppers and onions. Or maybe you want it to be a meat sauce, so add another pound of meat. It’s up to you!

I hope you enjoy it however you make it.

~Ian

Then suddenly my site comes back up (obviously). No explanation, no apology, no response from my hosting company. And apparently this has been going on for a while, for a variety of reasons and people.

So I’m thinking about switching my hosting service.

The obvious option is godaddy. They’re pretty much the most well known service around (that I can think of anyway) and their prices are good… only slightly more than I’m paying now I believe. What service do you all use? I’m looking for options here, because I have a few months left on my current subscription to this company, and I figure I’ll ride it out while I think about switching. I’m  looking for  pricing and options mostly, how many MySQL databases, bandwidth, etc. Please, leave comments :).

So that’s why my site has been down, if you were wondering, and that’s what’s been going on.

More postenings soon!

~Ian

I am an audiophile, and am (happily) addicted to the blessed aural sex (pun intended - if you don’t get it, say that out loud).  I can admit this happily and without shame, because I have received nothing but joy from this addiction (minus the withdrawal). While I can say that I have never felt the effects of heroin, I feel that I have felt something akin to the withdrawal from it. Being without a good tune for a prolonged period of time is painful to me. I get antsy. I get jittery. I get angry. Cut me off from music for more than 24 hours and you’re likely to have a raving lunatic on your hands, ranting about quarter-notes and syncopated machine-gun drumming… There is nothing worse than cutting a fiend off from his poison of choice, and I am thankful that has only happened to me on a few, rare occasions.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t need to be constantly listening to music to be in a good mood. I can go without it for short periods of time. Am I listening to music right this second? You can bet your face I am. But I don’t need to be drinking listening to music in order to have a good time. Jeez… But please don’t ask me to go a day without listening to at least some acoustic rock… you’re asking for trouble. Many issues can be seen with the portable audio culture we live in today. When you’re too busy listening to your iPod to pay attention to the fact that your crossing the street… you deserve to be road kill. Though I do feel sorry about this poor woman, its a shame it happened, and I don’t think it’s her fault for listening to her ipod at the time… who expects a fucking tree to fall on them, really? If I was her, I would just hope I was listening to something damn good at the time… (P.S. - I do hope they identify her and put friends and family’s minds at ease…). But it does get ridiculous when New York has to try and pass a law about wearing headphones while crossing the street… really? I find that a bit unnecessary. If someone is going to be retarded, please by all means let them die and increase the worlds average IQ… please. But I digress…

Where was I? Oh yes, my music addiction. There are certains bands that if I hear they are  releasing a new album,  I simply have to own it as soon as possible. When Tool put out 10,000 Days I was in Ohio at the time (don’t ask why, I try to block these things from memory…) but I made a point to hit a Best Buy and purchase it. When The Mars Volta released Octahedron I went out and bought it as soon as possible after I heard about it (the next day, considering Brandon told me about it after all the stores were closed). This raises an interesting subject though…

Thrice, one of my top 5 bands (ever…) announced back in January 2009 that they were working on a new album. As of June, this new album was titled “Beggars” and in July they announced that it would be released in October (woo birthday time!). However in mid-July the album was leaked online, to the dismay of the band. In order to recover from this leak, they have decided to release the album on iTunes early (August 11th) and release the physical album on September 15th with 5 bonus tracks (most specifically, a cover of one of the few Beatles songs I like - Helter Skelter). While I am sorry that the album was leaked and that the band had to change their marketing plans to accommodate this, did I download the leaked album? Yes - but I plan on buying a copy of it on September 15th anyway. Being one of my favorite bands I couldn’t resist the siren’s call to hear this new album (which I might add is amazing, though I will wait till August 11th to write a full review, if I decide to). Is it wrong that I effectively supported the piracy and leaking of this album? Yeah probably. Do I particularly care? No, especially because I’m going to buy it anyway, so I’m not really hurting the band. I guess it comes down to whether or not I feel comfortable with this morally-grey area. Did I steal? Yes and no (the no is more my opinion but I’ll save that for a later date). Do I feel bad about it? Yes, because I know the band is annoyed about the album being leaked. Am I going to delete the album? Yes… once I have a physical copy so I can rip higher quality versions of the tracks.

It comes down to a matter of opinion. I am of the opinion that if you love a bands music you should support that band. I am also of the opinion that my audio addiction needs to be satiated so that I don’t slaughter the innocent in a psychotic rampage. So how do I solve this dilemma? Not listen to leaked music and wait till the album comes out? Not care and just download music willy-nilly? Meh… I’ll settle for supporting the bands by paying outrageous prices for concert tickets to make up for the fact that I stole their album five days before it was released…

So continue listening to music, and enjoying that lovely aural sex… I’ll catch you after I’ve listened to this Thrice album 534573457322346268 times…

~Ian

I started exploring these spots and mapping them two years ago. Once a month I’d travel the city for a full 24 hours, looking for a new spot, trying to find one of those dark places, explore it, make it mine. I keep a map in my drawer with each of the eight that I’ve found carefully documented, with a notebook full of my descriptions and feelings as I explored the place. There is no pattern, no rhyme or reason for their location. Scattered about the city like leaves on the wind, they simply exist. A corner in an alley here, a subway station there, an underground goth rave in this spot, an abandoned building’s basement in that… I’ve even attempted to purchase two of them that were in abandoned buildings, but the city “lost” or denied my requests.

So why am I talking about these places? What made me write about them today? Last night, I went to my favorite, the basement of a building located on… no, I best not reveal the location. I had lured a prostitute to the spot with the promise of ill-earned funds… After finishing my business and stuffing the parts in a garbage bag, I felt another presence. No one else ever came to these spots, it simply didn’t happen. I was almost always alone in them… the dead don’t count. Looking around carefully, I noticed a light flicker briefly from beneath a doorway. I had already satiated my hunger for the day, but sport was always welcome. Picking up one of my knives I crept silently to the doorway and inched it open. The light had vanished but that didn’t mean it’s creator had. The room was empty, but I saw the light coming from down a corridor. Creeping silently down it, I followed it through a labyrinth of passages, twisting through the basement for much further than I though it traveled. Suddenly I came to another closed door, with the light coming from much strong beneath it than previously seen. I paused for a moment, then pushed open the door and looked into the room. The sight chilled me, and in case you can’t tell, I’m not an easily scared person. I closed the door and ran, leaving my prize behind and escaping to the street, away from the darkness.

My soul felt twisted… turned round and burnt, from the visage I had encountered. But I felt curious. Even in my fear, I wanted more. I wanted to know what could cause what I saw, what I felt when I opened that door. I needed it. Morbid curiosity, or a death wish, either way I had to learn more. I returned the next night to that place, but the presence was gone. I returned each night, forgetting my normal routine, and searched that building for it. Exactly a month later, I entered the building, preparing to give up, when the presence returned. It overwhelmed me as soon as I entered. Filling my senses and causing as much pain as it did ecstasy within moments. I collapsed to the floor, used and discarded, but quickly climbed back to my feet, wanting more. I delved deeper into the basement, the presence growing stronger with each correct turn I made. In a short while I had found that door again, the light flickering, same as before. Opening it slowly, I beheld the site again. Grotesque and beautiful at once. Overpowering my senses and filling me with as much dread as it did excitement. To stare into the abyss and have it stare back into you, as the saying goes, was beautiful. Weeping, I fell to my knees, allowing it to wash over me.

I awoke later, I had no idea of how much time had passed, though the presence was gone. I rose to my feet, shaking, and lit my lighter. Peering around, I saw I was in the same place, still standing in the doorway. The room before me was plain, empty. The smearing of foul bodily substances on the walls was gone, the piles of desecration gone, the gaping maw of hell in the floor replaced with concrete floor. I saw none of the horror and delights from before, only a room, plain walls, plain floor. As I turned to leave, I caught a glimmer of light in the corner. Approaching it, I saw a simple talisman laying in a corner, discarded. I bent to pick it up, and as I touched it I felt the presence again, faint, but there. Pocketing the trinket, I left, returning to my home. As I sit here writing I can’t take my eyes off of it. It beckons to me, calling, begging me to pick it up. I know not how to use it, or what it can even do, but I know it’s mine… or rather I belong to it…

I’ve had wordpress statistics installed on my blog pretty much since I started it. It keeps track of how many visits I get a day, what posts people are reading, how they are finding my site, etc. This lets me track unique page visits as well, how many IPs hit my site each day. When I’m posting regularly this number usually averages around 45-50, some days it’s around 30, some it’s around 70. The last few days it has skyrocketed, and it didn’t take my long to figure out why. Megan Fox Porn.

Yes. The day after I posted my “short” rant on  how Megan Fox has the acting abilities of a porn star (okay, a bad one, I have to admit some porn stars aren’t horrendous actresses apparently), my “unique visits” counter shot up to 188, more than triple the daily average. Because people searching for “megan fox porn”/”megan fox porno”/”fox demon porn” (I wonder about that one…) have been visiting my site in droves. Now, while this drives up my page visits, and I’ve noticed that many of these people are probably reading other articles on my site as well (based on the what posts are being read stats), I’m conflicted about this. Do I really want the tools that A: think Megan Fox is hot, and B: want to see her having sex, looking at my site? Yes and no. On one hand, I’ve seen the Paris Hilton sex tape purely out of morbid curiosity, so I understand the amusement/boredom factor in looking up “famous person porn.” On the other hand, Megan Fox doesn’t have a (known) sex tape, so it’s purely people going “I want to see Magan Fox nekkid hurr hurr” (Yes “magan” was one of the spellings that got people to my site…) and searching in their sad desperation online for anything hinting at nakedness involving this girl. (A note to those of you reading this article because you were searching online for Megan Fox porn – I offer no apologies for this post, if you’re reasons for looking up “Megan Fox porn” are not sad desperation, good for you, you don’t need to yell at me, just feel confident in your superiority and know that I don’t give a shit.)

So am I happy about the massively increased viewing of my website? Yes. Am I happy about the reason? Not really, but I’ll take what I can get…

~Ian

Members of the blogenning (which we now affectionately and spitefully refer to the blogging agreement as) Brandon and Jaco are traveling down from Boston and Philly (respectively) to visit and spend the weekend in Dover visiting me. In about 24 hours Brandon will arrive here (Jaco is arriving earlier in the day, mid-afternoon), and we shall have an entertaining weekend.

The highlight of the weekend is Sunday, when we will be going to Kings Dominion for the day. I haven’t been there in a few years and it is my favorite amusement park, plus I’ll be going with Crista, my best friend Brandon, Jaco, and my parents. It should be awesome.

Besides that there will be much hanging out, guitar playing, some drinking, and general goofing around. I haven’t seen Brandon in about a year, so it will be nice to see him, and haven’t seen Jaco since the same time even though he lives closer, so it’s all-around exciting.

Look for tales of (mis)adventures and insanity after the weekend, and don’t expect much posting from any of us till Monday (more than likely, you never know with us).

~Ian

Or wait, is this one of those “Carmen Electra” things - “No we swear she’s a legitimate actress…. *shifty eyes*”? No? Huh… okay. So you’re saying Megan Fox isn’t a porn star? But she’s a terrible actress. You’re sure? Alright… I believe you I guess… Oh wait, she’s a vapid, air head, who can’t act, but thinks she’s the hottest new thing and sells her movies that way? Ooooooooh okay. So she might as well be a porn star, just without the hot dickings (on film at least). Gotcha… at least you people realize why she’s in movies…

Courtesy of SocioTom - Used with permission.

Okay, so in all seriousness folks. Why do you pay money to see movies with people in them who blatantly can’t act, and pretty much admit they can’t act? Eye candy only goes so far… and honestly the woman isn’t hot anyway. It’s like Carmen Electra and Jessica Alba. Sure 12 year old boys like to fap over them, but grown men? Seriously you should have better taste than that. Perhaps someone who’s not a self-centered, mindless twat, with perhaps a modicum of acting ability? In an interview about her new movie Jennifer’s Body, she even admits “there are no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give” aka… nothing to distract you from my horrible acting, sorry. And don’t get me started on the new movie either. A cheerleader seduces boys in order to kill them? That’s an original concept. At least she kills them by eating them because she’s possessed by a demon, that’s at least interesting, but the setting (cheerleader, high school…*cough*) ruins that for me.

Please, do me a favor, stop supporting terrible-ness so I don’t have to have my vision infected by it whenever I see an ad on TV or online. I don’t want to see ads for this girl talking about how she thinks she’s hotter than Angelina Jolie anymore (which she obviously isn’t, but that’s besides the point). Take your pompous ass back to where it belongs, in porn, or Vegas. That’s where women who can’t act who think they’re hot usually end up, please take your proper place. Thanks.

~Ian

When I read that Burton was making a version of my second favorite Disney movie ever, in his own twisted vision, I became very excited. The Fox and The Hound might be my favorite, but Disney’s Alice in Wonderland probably helped shaped me into the inquisitive person I am today. It’s also one of my favorite books, and I think Lewis Carroll is a genius, but that’s for a different post.

So Tim Burton is remaking Alice in Wonderland. What does this mean? Lately his movies have gotten a little more twisted and dark, so are we going to get an Edward Scizzorhand-ian “Through the Looking Glass” tale? Is it going to be geared more towards kids like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Hearing the casting made me even more excited, Johnny Depp was obviously the choice for Mad Hatter, but with Timothy Spall (The Bloodhound), Christopher Lee (The Jabberwock), and Alan Rickman (The Caterpillar) in there it can’t miss, and casting Stephen Fry as The Cheshire Cat seals the deal for me (and yes, of course Helena Bohnam Carter was cast as the Red Queen… was there a question about that?). Then there’s a twist…

This weekend the promo trailer for the movie was released, and I was mildly surprised. After seeing the picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter I was looking forward to a gothic creepy version of the tale (as that’s the impression I got from the picture). Then I saw the trailer and was surprised. This is going to be (partially) animated? Oh… cool! There is nothing wrong with that. My favorite Burton movie (or at least it was for 14 years until Sweeney Todd came out…) is animated, so I obviously like his animated work. It just was a surprise (which is a good thing in a way - surprises are always fun). It also looks like it’s going to be geared a little towards children (though what Tim Burton movie really is in reality?). Also not a bad thing. It’s good to make something the whole family can enjoy… plus it introduces a new generation to the twisted genius.

So am I still excited about Tim Burton making Alice in Wonderland? Oh hell yes. In a different way though. Not in a lesser way, just different. So hurry up and bring me one of my favorite tales damn it!

Oh, and it’s being done in 3-D technology too, which is pretty damn awesome (and it will be really creepy seeing a partially animated Johnny Depp Mad Hatter jumping out of the screen at me…).

And of course, I’m never one to leave someone in the dark, so here’s the trailer - Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

~Ian