Wanderings in a Castle of Light

Avacado-jalapeño Deviled eggs

2015-02-03T03:12:20Z

As requested, I'm putting this recipe up, and since Facebook is terrible for longer posts, I may as well use my largely defunct account here. (*waves at everyone who thought I was gone from this site for good*)

While I've seen this concept on more than one site in the past, this was more a case of "I have extra avocados from the other dish, and I wanted to make deviled eggs anyway, so why not do this" at 11 pm the night before the party.

Ingredients:

10 eggs (because you forgot you ate two of them for breakfast last weekend)

Hardboil these eggs. I realize there are holy wars fought over how best to do this. I put them all in a big pot, cover them with cold water (with a pinch of salt) then heat it to a boil. Once it transitions from tiny bubbles to a real boil, turn it off/remove from heat, cover the pot and let sit for 12-15 minutes or so. When done, take them out and submerge them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then peel them.

Oh, some people believe you should turn all the eggs upside down in the carton about half a day before you use them, to center them more perfectly. I cannot vouch for this working, but if you have old eggs (best for hardboiling) that have been sitting there a while, it makes some sense.

While that's going on, do the following:

- mince about quarter of a red onion. (A couple of teaspoons worth? How much do you like onion and how much is leftover from whatever else you're doing?)
- mince some jalapeño. I did about the same amount as there was onion, but obviously this is to taste. (Note, I had ones in a jar of vinegar, you can do this with fresh, but that tends to be hotter, so keep it in mind.)
- If you are the cilantro/coriander type, chop up a tiny bit of that. If your guests think it tastes like soap, don't do that.

Take your cooled eggs and slice them lengthwise. Gently scoop the yolks out and put the hollowed-out whites aside.

Put 5 yolks in a bowl with two avocados. Mash them together with a fork. Add the jalapeño and onion (and cilantro). If it needs salt or pepper, add that.

Don't throw the other yolks away! Find something else to do with them, they are yummy. Honestly, you can use more or less yolks to avocado - this worked out to still primarily green, and yummy.

Scoop the filling into the halved egg whites. (You can try piping it, but this is fairly chunky, a spoon works fine). Dust lightly with paprika.

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2012: A year in pictures

2012-12-31T14:52:16Z

As promised elsewhere, a year in pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcastellucci/sets/72157632390707121/with/8329204857/

Basically one picture per day on which I took them. (I gave myself some leeway for events crossing midnight.) I did not always pick what I might consider the "best" picture of the day, just the most evocative of things happening.

I think you can't comment on flickr if you aren't a member, so feel free to comment here.

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A Goth up a Tree

2012-10-24T23:19:06Z

A 4.9? I'm impressed, I didn't think we were going to break 4.

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Vendredi Visuel - Night and Fog in Montreal

2012-10-05T13:47:38Z

Leaving the metro today, I found Montreal had been suddenly wreathed in fog.

The streetlights turned into gaslights from the Victorian era, and the park into a lonely stretch of moor.

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Love in the Time of Angels [Doctor Who s07e04 - The Angels Take Manhattan]

2012-09-29T22:55:48Z

Is there some kind of rule that episodes taking place in New York must follow the title scheme "X takes Manhattan"?

And so farewell, Rory and Amy. That was nicely tied off with a bow in the end, and quite acceptable as a finish, I would say. Nothing spectacular, but perfectly solid. Rory and Amy as the couple who will never separate is pretty much the way they've been presented since the Panopticon, so that makes perfect sense.

Moffatt was back to his intricately-plotted time puzzles here, which is one of the things he does best. The whole use of the pulp crime novel was nicely done, although I would have had Amy writing it given they've established her as a writer just one epiosde before.

The Angels were mostly brought back to basics, which made them nice and creepy again. The cherubim giggling was superbly off-putting and the Statue of Liberty Angel was so awesomely nonsensical that you kind of had to just roll with it. Even River was used well here, getting to call out the Doctor's particular insecurities in a way that was tragic (although rang a bit too creepily of an abusive relationship in some of the echoes, given the Peter Pan elements and calling out his dislike of aging and endings) and her admonishment he not travel alone worked well.

The whole "Rory and Amy are his parents" feel was used to good effect here, even if it isn't my favourite aspect of the story, what with the family outings comments along with the reference to getting a babysitter for the Doctor.

Not quite ending with a bang, although I wouldn't say their story ended with a whimper, either. I didn't cry, but it was sad.

I see Oswin (or whoever she is now) returns at Xmas, and so I suppose we wait until then to find out if she's the same character in some form or another or not.

This season, much like last, hasn't really grabbed me, and I suppose we will have to see if the 2013 half picks up.

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Numbers. [Doctor Who s07e04 - The Power of Three]

2012-09-29T20:30:28Z

At least it wasn't a Charmed crossover.

Most of the time when an episode is primarily about the relationships of the Doctor and his Companions, the actual plot won't stand up to much scrutiny. This doesn't break the mold. The Shakri were boring, and the resolution felt very much in the RTD "just wrap it up with a magic button, I don't care" style. (The last line title drop was just painful.)

I did like the arrival of Kate Stewart, and hope she makes occasional guest appearances in the future. I can see her growing on me. I still adore Rory's dad, Brian.

The idea of the Doctor coming to visit, and seeing an episode from the point of the view of the Pond's was nice, but they didn't have the guts to really do anything with it. The "annoyed Doctor at home" was rushed through briefly and didn't amount to much. The Doctor still remained the focus, instead of really pacing it as if the Ponds were central.

I get the whole "The Ponds are like his Parents" vibe they sometimes go for, but other than some side conversations about running to or running from things, it didn't amount to much. The whole bit about Amy's face being the first his new face saw was the closest to anything meaningful.

I am not sure if I should be reading something into the constant flickering lights we've seen all year so far. Given that the Angels are coming next week for the Pond finale and they've often been associated with that effect, it could be something specific, or simply tonal foreshadowing.

A fond nod to the normal life of the Ponds, but I am sufficiently bored of them that I fear they have a lot of work to do to make me care.

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Vendredi Visuel - L'Amour Sorcier

2012-09-21T14:57:11Z

From the concert Wednesday night.

(Yes, the blog is terrible. I eventually paid the guy to just go away. I will hopefully one day have time to experiment with learning enough Wordpress to do something nice to it myself.)

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Spaceships, The Doctor, and T-Rex, oh my. [Doctor Who s07e02 - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship]

2012-09-09T00:26:46Z

And just like that I am reminded why I like this show.

If you do it right, it can be cracking great fun.

The Doctor grabs Nefertiti, a big game hunter from the early 20th century, Amy, Rory, and Rory's dad to try and turn an abandoned ship around before Earth Forces are forced to shoot it out of the sky.

That's the pre-credit teaser.

Chris Chibnall provides the writing here and clearly decided to have a blast. We've got a mismatched gang of adventurers, a mystery, and dinosaurs in space... GO!

Despite the setup, it never degenerates into stupid or goofy for its own sake. It's written with love for this kind of adventure story. It's basically a stand-alone, although there are some nice nods to general continuity.

It was refreshing to have everyone be useful and interesting. No tag-along companions, there to show off how awesome Amy or the Ponds are. Instead, much like the Demon's Run episode from last season we get a quick whirlwind glances at other people who could easily be awesome companions themselves. I'd happily see Nefertiti, Riddell, or Brian again. Wonderfully, there aren't any forced angsty bits among the Ponds, but rather some genuine affection, and the whole thing clips along at a nice lively pace.

There's very little plot to spoil here, because it isn't relying on forced twists to make an impact. Who built the ship? Why are the dinosaurs? Why is it headed towards Earth? These things drive the plot, and the answers aren't immediately obvious, but they all make sense.

I liked the whole damn thing. It was fun. Doctor Who should be fun. I'm glad someone remembers this.

If Asylum of the Daleks was just the outlier of trying to hard to be "big" and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is going to be representative of the new "no story arcs" approach, this may be a fine season after all.

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The Inmates are running the Asylum -- [Doctor Who s7e01 - The Asylum of the Daleks]

2012-09-08T21:24:57Z

The seventh series of Doctor Who arrives with the return of the Ponds, a Parliament of Daleks, and a quick demonstration that Moffatt has no intention to change the style or tone he has brought to the show for his two years in charge.

Luckily, that kept my expectations low.

Asylum of the Daleks is a mess of an episode that tried very hard to have an epic feel to launch of series 7 and fell quite far of that goal.

The Daleks, who don't believe the Doctor is dead, find him and bring him, along with the now-split up Rory and Amy, to the Parliament of the Daleks, which makes for a good visual but very little sense. It appears to be an excuse to include every Dalek design they could get their hands on and I will wave it away as a name that doesn't quite mean what we would think "Parliament" means.

They have an Asylum planet where they keep the Daleks who are so crazy that they scare even the other Daleks. This is a neat concept but really doesn't fit in with anything established about Daleks and their sense of purity. Especially given that the rise of the iDaleks hinged on that point and was the last time we saw them.

An Earth cruiser from some unidentified time point has crashlanded on the planet, despite the impenetrable forcefield. A survivor (who has lived for a year hiding in a sealed off area and baking soufflees) is broadcasting signals out. The Daleks are afraid the crazy Daleks will find a way to escape, since the force field has been breached in some way. They need the Doctor to go down and stop the threat by bringing down the force field so the Daleks can bombard the planet.

No, don't think to hard about the logic of the plot, that will only get in the way.

The Doctor has four tasks:

Find and save the crashed survivor, Oswin.
Eliminate the threat of the Asylum inmates escaping and running rampant across the universe.
Escape/Defeat the Daleks who captured him and are ready to bomb the planet.
Fix Rory and Amy's marriage.

Yes, we are supposed to care about the last one. Yes, it's an excuse to have another argument over which one has done more sacrifices for the other because they have bad communication skills. Yes, they manage to overcome some Dalek technology with the power of their love because Dalek tech seems to be belief-powered ever since Moffatt took over.

Oswin was kind of fun, although clearly meant to be "the hot nerd girl all the nerds will be hot for" with a touch of Manic Pixie thrown in. The plot involving her seemed incredibly obvious, but I gather that's because I *don't* read spoilers. Had I known more of what had been leaked, it is possible I would have been fooled. Pro tip, plots that depend on the audience knowing spoilers to be effective are not effective. (Although I do kind of appreciate trolling your fans sometimes.)

I was recently told that the estate of Terry Nation and the BBC reached a deal in which the Daleks must appear once a season in Doctor Who. "Contractually Obligated Dalek Episode" may just suffice to sum up the Dalek presence here. There was one nice addition to the Dalek repertoire here, and some of the broken Asylum Daleks were interestingly done. I can imagine someone writing a decent Dalek episode again some time in the future, but it would really help if they could break that contract and drop them for more than a couple of years minimum.

Smith stays camera-muggingly charming and that does help the show stay watchable, while the sooner the Ponds get off our screen the better. Endless re-hashes of their pointless relationship angst is just grating. Clearly you have nothing further interesting to do with them, so get them away.

All in all a weak start that doesn't bode well for the rest of the series and implies the slap-dash storytelling Moffat's run has become known for will continue. The "Everyone thinks the Doctor is Dead" bit looks like it will be remembered when convenient, if at all, although I can see some arguing that the closing scene with the Daleks is actually a hint that the whole "First Question" thing will be a story arc this season despite our fervent hopes.

Still, the next episode has dinosaurs on a spaceship, so that might be fun.

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Election Thoughts

2012-08-30T03:21:02Z

So I went to the Débat des candidats dans Verdun today, arriving a bit late due to work.

misskitty79 saved me a space by the pillar, since it was pretty jam packed (I'd put it at 120 people or so). As some of you know, I've been less than enthused about my options in this election. Due to some prearranged agreement due to time constraints, only 5 representatives were given full time: PLQ, PQ, CAQ, QS, and ON. The Greens and the CUQ had to stay in the back, to be given 5 minutes of time at the end.

My impressions?
Liberal Henri-François Gautrin
--> Did not show up. This probably saved him some serious shit-talking from the crowd.

Parti Québécois Thierry St-Cyr
--> Blew my mind. Progressive, passionate, on top of the issues and knows how to work a crowd, stay on time, answer debate questions, and always work in his core message of "this is why we need a sovereign Quebec". If it wasn't for my deep distrust of Pauline Marois and the PQ, he might have won my vote right here.

Coalition Avenir Québec André Besner
--> Very solid. He's live here for most of his life, decided once he retired he would go into public service. I disagree with most of his fundamental principles, but he struck me as professional, engaged, and was impressively able to take some hits from a crowd that did not like him.

Québec solidaire Chantale Michaud
--> I like a lot about her platform, but she doesn't know how to handle this kind of format. Constantly going over time because she was reading her answers, rather than speaking them, she then got so flustered by being called out on it that when the red sign for no more time went up, she'd just stop mid sentence instead of finishing her thought. This marred what was otherwise some good policy ideas and what appeared to be a very solid knowledge of the local situation.

Green Jeffrey Mackie
--> Only got to speak at the end. Made the effort to do it in French, although it was clearly difficult for him. Just a vague stump speech introduction with no real policy meat.

Option nationale Marc-Antoine Daneau
--> He probably wished he hadn't had a seat for the debate, and had given it to Green. He apparently started with fair support from the crowd, but pissed it away by basically saying independence was the answer to everything. No context, no nuance. Probably just a computer geek who agreed to run. He did get better as the debate went on, which I complimented him on afterwards. That was NOT easy (it got to the point people just started laughing when he started to answer a question) but he stuck with it and clearly learned some just watching the professionals. No way I'd ever vote for a group whose entire platform basically consists of "Why aren't we already splitting off from Canada? We can figure out details later."

Coalition pour la constituante Elisabeth Doyon
--> Did not see this human.

Quebec Citizens' Union Philippe Refghi
--> He gave another quickie 5 minutes speech at the end. OK, but a bit unfocused, with most of it dedicated to the idea of "the old parties are bad, and voting for someone new isn't wasting your vote".

In the end, I am really glad I went. QS seems to have massive support, which surprised me. There is certainly a "dear god, get the liberals out" mood, but vote splitting PQ/QS could be a big deal.

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Birthday Comments

2012-05-01T19:31:22Z

One person actually managed a 3:33 am text. She gets a cookie.

I have so far received "adventurous", "sexy", "Paul Giamatti" (which seems to contradict the other two), and "Too cool for school" as messages today.

There was also an extended email thread at work involving disturbing My Little Pony pictures.

All in all, pretty good so far.

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Uploading a new site [Ask the Internet]

2012-04-25T05:21:47Z

OK, so the guy I hired has set up a template/design/plugins for wordpress for my site after forever, many misunderstandings, and a general sense of malaise.

It sucks, but has functionality I like, so I'll worry about making it work by actually having the damn thing up and just posting, who cares what it looks like.

Fine. Great.

He's sent me what appears to be an xml export.

Fine. Great.

So how the hell do I get it on my site? I have an old wordpress install with dreamhost. If I just import this, will it apply all the menus and plugins and what have you? Dreamhost and Wordpress.org are deeply useless in answering this question. (What happens to the posts that are already there? Do they stay?)

I've backed up everything from the old one to the best of my ability, but how I actually get the new bits up is completely opaque to me since documentation is something no one seems to believe in.

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Happy Day of Books and Roses!

2012-04-23T13:33:44Z

Everyone give something interesting!

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Birthday Month

2012-04-17T17:36:24Z

For those of you who are not facebook-compliant, I am trying to organize my month of birthday activities by way of a group I can pin events on.

I will relay them here, and anyone who wants to ping me to ask specifically for email notifications can.

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Running Interference

2012-04-16T18:02:41Z

I once had a friend of mine who tends bar tell me that she always treated me well at the bar because I was good at running interference. Namely, in cases where there was a client (almost exclusively male) who was having trouble with respecting the boundaries and personal space of herself or other clients at the bar, I was good at acting as an extra distraction to help keep the pressure off the intended target.

This weekend, after rehearsal, I grabbed a coffee with my friend Kendall on the way to a photo shoot she was doing with a new photographer. Since the old port is often difficult to navigate and she had a big valise of clothing, I walked her to the shoot proper.

The photographer greeted us outside, invited us into his gorgeous Old Port apartment, and explained how he had seen her stuff online, and she needed his "eye, and vision. While I need your youth and colour." Then he offered to go get alcohol.

I turned to Kendall and asked if she wanted me to stay for a bit to keep an eye on Captain Sketch of Sketchytown. I stayed the whole time.

I know there are sketchy "photographers" whose entire goal is to have half-naked women in their house. I just hadn't actually run into one yet.

My reward for the good deed Saturday was carrot ginger soup, nan-bread with garlic, and watching the 1980 Flash Gordon so Kendall could go nuts about the costuming, so I was well recompensed.

It upsets me that I still need to run interference.

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Tilda Swinton as the Doctor [Ask the Interwebs]

2012-04-12T14:40:17Z

As many of you know, I have long supported Tilda Swinton as the next Doctor. Having recently seen a photoshop of Hugh Laurie (in full House mode) as The Doctor, I think I need some counter propoganda. Thanks to not-my-facebook-friend Angela, I was pointed to these pictures.

Anyone enough of a Photoshop wizard to get a TARDIS in there and Doctor these up?

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Birthday Plans (suggestions welcome)

2012-04-04T16:46:07Z

So since my first plan of convincing SJ Tucker to do a house concert in Montreal on my birthday didn't happen, I have been lax about planning something for what is a milestone birthday if measured in base 10. Since I have the play pretty much right up to that weekend, that has complicated things.

Therefore, I decided I would do a series of smaller parties, celebrating the many facets of the universe I enjoy, and the friends who enjoy them with me over the course of May.

Some thoughts include:
- rent a private pool room and shoot some stick
- Fancy Dinner party/Wine tasting
- Something Art related. (A vernissage, perhaps?)
- Massive photoshoot/photowalk
- Something of Intense Geekiness.
- A symposium? (Old school. Drinks, food, and a subject of debate until Plato shows up and schools us all. Or something.)
- Other? (Picnic? Treasure hunt?

All suggestions welcome.

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More Angry Men

2012-03-23T01:10:08Z

Second trailer.

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5 Angry Men - April 19-21; 26-28

2012-03-19T16:51:56Z

The first trailer/mockumentary clip for 5 Angry Men - the play I am in this April - has gone live.

The youtube channel is here. More clips will be added over the next few weeks.

Tickets are already on sale online:
They are $14 (plus service charge = 14.32). They will also be sold at the door.

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Holidays and Resignations

2012-03-15T17:12:50Z

Yesterday was Pi Day --> I baked a pie.

Today is the Ides of March --> I have encouraged the Senate to turn on Stephen Harper.

Tomorrow is 3:16 --> I have not decided whether I should praise the Lord's mercy or kick someone's ass.

And then Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, or as the unfortunately named "Pagan Pope" wants to rename it, All Snakes Day --> I will be shooting a movie, which has nothing to do with either celebration.

This resignation letter by a Goldman Sachs employee stating out loud what many outsiders have reported has caused quite a stir.

And here's one from someone leaving Google because of the particular corporate culture shift.

Most people these days are in no position to resign, of course, and that's just the way the would-be-feudal overlords want it.

Speaking of overlords, Darth Vader resigned as well.

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In Verdun, Cool is a One-Way Street

2012-03-13T13:26:27Z

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Bugs

2012-03-09T19:32:56Z

Two stories about bugs.

1) Researches posit that honey bees have individual personalities. Or, more accurately, some are thrill-seekers (more properly "novelty-seekers", it seems) and some are not.

2) Fleeing the rising waters of a flood, thousands of wolf spiders have blanketed a farm in Wagga Wagga.

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Better than Tribe

2012-03-09T17:19:41Z

This is something I've wanted to ask about for awhile, and another conversation has reminded me about it.

I've never liked "tribe" as it gets used by people for their group of friends/community/etc. There's the issue of its use in Native American political structure of course. That's a big part of it. But there's also the fact that it has from the very beginning been linked to blood and exclusion, specifically.

I do like the idea of a word for these sorts of self-chosen communities of friends and intimates or at least like-minded individuals, but "tribe" always rubbed me the wrong way.

So, does anyone have other words they like for this sort of thing? Clique seems too exclusionary. I seem to remember having once done a search and come across Clade as an option, but now I can't find any backing other than the biological nomenclature, so perhaps I am thinking of another word. Nakama seems too intimate, for instance.

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Friday: Lions, Libertarians, no Limbaugh

2012-03-09T16:16:15Z

Combining some obnoxious rich people, the Lucille and Mitt tumblr.

Sleepy Lions

Stealing the heart of a saint? That's a horror movie plot waiting to happen.

The Value-Added Teacher Model sucks. I need to read more Mathbabe, as she has lots of interesting things to say. Quants for the rest of us is good. (And it seems I need to check out Duck Duck Go.

Things to do to stop Google from collecting and using all your information. (I suspect us Android users are out of luck, everything on our phones belongs to Google.

Black Bloc tactics as cargo cult.

So is Libertarianism really just an attempt to preserve older forms of private power and not concerned with liberty at all?

Some advice for doing your own FOIA requests. (USA only.)

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Musical Monday - Stairway to...

2012-03-06T20:19:30Z

Stairway to Gilligan's Island

In an alternate universe, The Beatles performed Stairway to Heaven

And, finally, the original lyrics to the Star Trek theme.

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flught
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

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