The Occasional Foodie: Real Mac and Cheese

        Macaroni and cheese is one food that is purely American. I can’t think of anyone that I know who doesn’t like mac ‘n’ cheese. The problem is, the delicate dish that most people know is bought off the shelf. Sure pasta is pasta (more or less), but what is up with the “cheese” sauce that we are being fed? It’s either a power to which one is instructed to add butter and water or its a highly-processed hydrogenated oil based cheese product. Gross.

        Just like with the alfredo, it doesn’t have to be this way. Really good mac and cheese is just as simple to make as chicken alfredo, perhaps even easier.

        Again, you will need
                1 quart cream (heavy whipping cream is the best)
                1 cup butter (clarified if you have it)
                1 cup flour
                1 lb.         macaroni
                4-5 cups cheddar cheese (shredded. Also, make sure you look at the ingredients of the cheese you buy. The main ingredient should be milk! If it contains a lot of oil, you might as well have just bought the stuff off the shelf.)
                1 cup breadcrumbs (crackermeal, not crumbled slices of bread)
                seasonings and extras to flavor.

        First let me explain what I mean by extras. Mac and cheese is a classic dish—it doesn’t need to be fancy. However, there are plenty of ways to dress it up. I have seen recipes that call to use thyme and rosemary in the roux for flavor. I’ve also seen a recipe which includes a dash of truffle oil added to the roux. None of this is necessary, but it does make for an interesting and flavorful experience. Personally, I like to use Italian breadcrumbs and include a dash of basil and oregano in my roux. I also include Italian cheeses like asiago, provolone, or romano instead of cheddar at times. It’s up to you, experimenting in the kitchen makes for a better cook.

        Lets get right down to making the mac and cheese now.

1. Preheat your oven to 350—do it right now!
2. Bring about 5-6 cups of water to boil in a medium to large stockpot. When the water comes to a boil, add a pinch of salt and throw in the macaroni. Stir the noodles every couple to minutes to make sure they aren’t sticking to the bottom of the pot or to each other. After about 8-10 minutes, the noodles should be done. They should be soft yet firm—I’m sure you’ve had macaroni before so if you’re unsure, just taste it!
3. Spread your macaroni out in a baking dish. I prefer to use an 8 in. x 24 in pyrex baking dish, but any baking dish in which the macaroni can be spread out will do.
4. To start the sauce, we are going to use the same steps that we did to make alfredo. We are going to heat the cream up over medium-low heat until it is hot, but not boiling. When the cream has reached temperature, slowly fold in the shredded cheese a handful at a time. You can use as much cheese as you want; the 4-5 cups is a guideline only. Just remember to melt it into the cream very slowly so that it doesn’t clump. You might notice that the adding the cheese thickens the cream considerably. If you use enough cheese, you might even be able to skip the next step as a roux might not be needed. NOTE: save a portion of the cheese, at least one cup, to spread over the mac and cheese before baking.
5. To thicken the cheese sauce, make a roux by combining equal parts butter and flour, whisking in a sauté pan over medium heat until it bubbles. NOTE: you will likely not not need to use the entire roux so be sure to add the roux to the cheese and cream mixture slowly—use only a little at a time until the sauce reaches your desired thickness. ANOTHER NOTE: If you would like to add spices such as thyme, rosemary, basil, paprika, or oregano to your mac and cheese, you may add them to the roux. Many spices release their flavors more efficiently in a fat such as butter. You might also use a tablespoonful of truffle oil in your roux.
6. When your sauce is complete, pour it over the macaroni. You might toss the noodles around a bit to be sure that the cheese sauce is throughly incorporated. When you’re finished, sprinkle a generous amount of breadcrumbs over the surface of the macaroni and cheese as well as a generous portion of shredded cheese. This will form a crust when baking.
7. Bake the macaroni and cheese for about 10 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Personally, I like to cook it for a bit longer to ensure that the macaroni is nice and soft.
8. Eat and enjoy. I like to pair this with a ham sandwich on some crusty bread toasted with some olive oil.

        Remember that cooking is not difficult. Eights steps might seem like a lot, but they are each very simple. Now you can say that you’ve made the best mac and cheese your family has ever tasted.

The Occasional Foodie: Using Roux in a Béchamel; or Making Alfredo

I love chicken alfredo. When many people make it at home, they cook the pasta, sauté the chicken and then turn to Prego or Ragu to dress it—it doesn’t have to be this way!

Using the steps I outlined in my previous post, you should understand how to make a roux—just combine flour and fat with a whisk over medium heat until it bubbles (this will happen very quickly, btw). Now I would like to introduce you to one of the 5 mother sauces of French cuisine: Béchamel sauce. A Béchamel is simply a sauce made with cream and a roux. I’m sure a French chef would say that there is more to it than that, but in reality—it’s that simple.

Now lets imagine that chicken alfredo for a moment. Isn’t alfredo a creamy sauce? Why yes, yes it is! Lets quickly run through how to make a basic alfredo:

You will need:
1 cup Olive oil (extra virgin)
1 cup Flour
1 quart Cream (heavy whipping cream works best)
2 cup Parmasian cheese (the kraft grated kind works as well)
Garlic (power or granulated)
Parsley (flakes will do fine—it’s just for color, really)

You can adjust this recipe for your needs, but you will probably want between a pint and a quart of cream. In a small stock pot, heat the cream over medium-low heat. You mustn’t let it boil, but you do want it to give off a bit of steam—so remember: hot, not boiling!

When you’re heating the cream, throw in your parmasian cheese. You might need more if you want a strong cheese taste or less if you would like it to be more subtle. This is YOUR recipe—it should taste how you want it. It’s fine to see if your cream is to your liking as you are cooking.
You will also want to add the garlic while you’re heating the cream. About a tablespoon should suffice if you’re using the power, but again, this is YOUR dish; flavor it how you want. If you want to add a dash of salt, go for it!
Lastly, throw in some parsley for color. At this point, the cream should TASTE like alfredo even if it isn’t the consistency that one would expect.

Finally, make your roux. Use olive oil as your fat (this is Italian food, after all) and whisk in the flour over medium heat. You may not need a cup of each depending on how you’ve adjusted the recipe. Also as a reminder, the more roux you incorporate into the cream, the thicker it will be. Again, this is your recipe, you decide how thick you’d like it.

When the roux has come together, whisk it vigorously into the cream. If you are experimenting with thickness, you may incorporate small amounts of the roux into the cream at a time until you reach your desired thickness. You should notice that it starts to thicken almost immediately. If it doesn’t, you might need to add more roux. Also be mindful that when you use this process, the sauce will thicken as it cools as well. Your sauce should be very flavorful. All that’s left to do now is add your pasta and chicken (or shrimp) and eat. It’s as easy as that!

Now you’ve learned how to make a Béchamel sauce. This sauce can do a lot of things. I’m thinking that our next endeavor will be delicious homemade macaroni and cheese using a cheese sauce made from a Béchamel. I also plan to show you a couple of other uses to get you thinking—perhaps how to use a Béchamel in a seafood pot-pie or a lasagna. Stay tuned!

The Occasional Foodie: Making and Using a Roux

If you were to study French cooking, you would soon learn that there are 5 mother sauces in French cooking. I will not go into them presently, but they are certainly easy to find. I will say that 3 out of the 5 are thickened with a substance called a roux (pronounced ‘rew’). A roux is a simple thickening agent that can be added to a liquid to make a sauce. Many people use a roux to thicken a stew, others use it for gravies and some for creamy sauces.

Lets get started. You will only need 2 ingredients:

• A fat (classically it’s clarified butter, but also olive oil, bacon grease, Crisco, etc.)
• Flour

A roux is quite simple to make as you combine equal parts of these two ingredients— for every cup of fat, you use a cup of flour. You combine them in a skillet over medium heat using a whisk—it couldn’t be any easier!! It will combine easily and bubble when it’s ready to be used. The result will be a paste that you can add to any liquid you wish to thicken.
Different recipes that you may find will call for a blond roux or a brown roux. The only difference between these roux are the amount of time that you cook them. The longer you cook the roux, the darker in color it will become. For most purposes, a blond roux will do fine. Certain gumbos will call for a darker roux. The longer one cooks a roux, the more the fat molecules intwine with the starch and the harder it is to “break” the sauce.

I will address this problem in my next post. First, however, I would like to tell you my favorite uses of a roux. Check out the next post!

The Occasional Foodie

I have been thinking recently—most notably after I watched Julie & Julia, that I have some cooking skills that I could share with people.
The reason that Julia Child was so revered is that she brought classic French techniques to the United States, many of which entered into the mainstream world of cooking—the cooking that was being done by everyone’s parents and grandparents back in the 50s and 60s. Something has happened since, however. Cooking in the home is starting to diminish. What was once a nightly occurrence has turned into a weekly ritual at best in many households. It’s a shame that after all the effort that Julia Child had taken, we forget her most valuable lesson: love the food you eat.
Not only did Julia Child prove to us all that the art of cooking is important, but she also proved that anyone could do it. She barely knew how to mince veggies when she began and now almost everyone is familiar with her accomplishments.

So I would like to take her message and begin to spread it once again. We are at the dawn of a new age of cuisine. It seems that there is a new generation of aspiring young gourmands who fancy themselves “foodies.“ As I understand it, a foodie is someone who takes pleasure in exploring taste combinations that they’ve never tried before. They are like the Christopher Columbus of the food world. But let me take this metaphor further—though Columbus ”discovered“ the new world, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t there before. Like Columbus, foodies pride themselves on personal discovery. It doesn’t mean that people haven’t been eating these foods for generations, but that the foodie is discovering new dishes.
Another aspect cuisine on which the foodie prides himself is quality ingredients. This means different things to different people. Some people want only to explore ingredients that are unfamiliar to them—only recently did I discover the wonders of goat cheeses. Others want to try the best goat cheeses that farmers and artisans have to offer. The point is this: to be a foodie, one must explore within self-imposed boundaries. Perhaps you want to learn how to make the best balsamic vinaigrette, perhaps you would simply like to learn how to bake a cake from scratch—if it’s interesting to you, go for it!

Lastly, start from the bottom and work your way up. Understand the foods that you are working with. One must know what their ingredients are capable of before they can master cooking. Simply understanding simple concepts can help someone be well on the way to becoming a gourmand. It wouldn’t hurt to understand some of the things that Julia spoke of in her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The French are pioneers in the world of cuisine and understanding simple concepts of French cooking can take your endeavors to another level.
I plan to offer a few of these concepts on my blog occasionally. They will be simple concepts that you can form to your own needs and perhaps I will even throw in a few recipes myself. I hope you enjoy. Remember, there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to cooking—anyone can do it.

"Spring Cleaning," or "I Hate Chores"

So now that spring has officially pushed winter off the ledge, it's time for that yearly renewal that we all anxiously await. Did you detect a hint of sarcasm? It's there, I assure you.

I've been using this blog for about four months now. It began as a vessel of my Digital Writing class and has turned into something that I actually care about. I've had blogs before, but they fizzled. This blog, however, feels comfortable to me--it's kinda like home.

That being said, I've had a few visitors lately in the form of assignments that were to be posted to this blog. I had to open up my home and allow those horrible-looking assignments to be posted. Fortunately, they are now gone. Deleted. Spring-cleaned.

Also of note, I am going to be adding a lot more to this blog--not only will this be an outlet for my views on the world in text, but also audio. That's correct, the podcast has been revamped and as soon as I can find out how to fix the feed, it will be available here on the blog, or on its very own website.

I am hoping to stick with my original manifesto for this blog and really make my voice heard. I know people have to listen to it, but maybe if I scream loud enough...

For those of you who actually read this blog, please leave comments. I really appreciate hearing feedback. Thanks for putting your voices out there too.

Look, Ma, I'm Sharing!

Check out the portfolio homepage I made for my collected works.

It might not be as interesting as my bitching and moaning about things, but if you have nothing else to do and it's raining outside... it might be worth checking out.

Manifesto Revisited

Oh yes, it is spring once again and it's time to start anew! It's time to look into our closets and the nooks of our pantries and throw out everything that is old and tired. Away with the sweater you bought last winter that you will never wear again. Out with those old Justin Timberlake albums. 

A wizened professor informed me that I also need to revise the manifesto that I posted at the beginning of this blog. The problem is, I don't feel that my manifesto needs revising. I am not sure how I feel about that--is it better that I haven't flip-flopped or have I not become enlightened? 

I still stand by my original utterances--words are power. Words are ideas and words are change. I believe that everyone should share their thoughts and their ideas, I believe people should spread the word. 

One day, someone will read what I've written and it will give them a new perspective. I am not saying that they will change their lives because of something that I've shared, but perhaps they will think twice. I believe this because I've had some of my perspectives changed by reading works from my fellow human beings. 

At the end of the day, we are all strong influences on one another. I intend to spread my influence and allow others to pass theirs along to me. This is necessary for our society to grow--we must keep out minds open to new ideas.

We must spread the word.

In case of emergency...

...please proceed to the nearest Apple Store.

((So I have to update my zero followers on a couple of points.

ONE: you may notice that there are some random things posted to my blog that don't seem to fit in with the usual format. Rest assured, it is only for my Digital Writing class. Once this semester is over, they will be hidden from the public view. Thanks for caring. Or not--it's whatever, really.

TWO: Apologies for my absence. I've been lazy. Sue me.))

Many of you may know that in all fantasy, I'm a vampire. That is, I sleep when the sun is out. I don't know why, but that has become my cycle over many years. It really sucks when I have something to do during the daytime. It will suck even more when I finally get that coveted nine-to-five.

Last night (and by last night I really mean 3 a.m. this morning) I decided to ride around for a while. I was developing cabin fever and just needed to get away. My trip took me everywhere you could imagine in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Along the way, my iPhone's battery began to die. I plugged it into the new car charger that I got--then it started acting foolish! The buttons (the physical ones) stopped working. When I reset the phone, the battery wouldn't hold a charge.

Jump to this evening when I went to the Apple Retail Store. I signed up for an appointment and raced to the mall. Surprisingly, I got there early. When I finally got called to the Genius Bar, the girl there (who didn't tell me her name) noticed that the case was cracked on the back. I told her about the battery. She did a diagnostic test on my phone. When she came back, she told me that she would just give me a new phone because my case was cracked and she could replace it just for that reason. Apple always amazes me.

The downside... iTunes doesn't back up your photos =(

Let's pat ourselves on the back!

Are y'all gonna watch the Oscars tonight? I must admit that I won't. I will be reading about it tomorrow. I don't care about celebrities getting together in their rented dresses and wallowing in self-appreciation. I am sure that there will be some noteworthy performances to discuss... Heath Ledger maybe? We will see!

More to come!

Just for the record...

I fucking hate Fox News Channel.

I happened to be surfing through the channels and came upon a show hosted by some guy named Sean Hannity. Not only did he have guests on his show that still referred to African Americans as "Blacks," but he wanted to talk about Obama looking like a monkey!

What the hell, is this the damned 1950s? Thanks for throwing some more gasoline on the fire that is racism, Fox News. You're about as irresponsible as that homeless mother with 14 children.

I also want to say that this Hannity guy plays his hate mail on the air. He complains that he and Fox News are the voices of reason. Seems odd to me that the voice of reason would receive hate mail. And if indeed they were the voice of reason, don't you think that voice would be able to deduce that playing hate mail on live TV is an idiotic idea?

Republicans and all of their let's-keep-our-heads-up-our-asses bullshit is really starting to wear on me. The Democrats won in many races across the country in droves. If I had a voice of reason, I think it would tell me to shut the hell up and stop whining already. Until Obama screws our country like Bush did, they have no room to talk at all.

I've been very rant-y lately, haven't I?

This doesn't feel quite right

Remember the eight-year-old boy that shot his father and his father's roomate? You remember, the one that the cops interrogated without the presence of a parent or lawyer? Apparently, he plead guilty today!

The now nine year old (who has remained anonymous due to his age) has allegedly come to the decision on his own. He has not been sentenced yet, but it has been decided that the courts will have say in his life until he is at least eighteen.

The Associated Press broke the story today, and you can check it out here.

This doesn't sit with me well. From the beginning I don't think things have been conducted properly. As I said, the boy's questioning was suspect from the start. Now, I wonder, do the proceedings seem a little off to anyone else but me? What judge would accept a nine-year-old boy's guilty plea? I am not sure that a child of that age, if he has a full understanding of the trial and all of its implications, should be able to submit a guilty plea. Where was his lawyer or his mother? Why was there a trial in the first place? It seems as though there should be a different way to handle something like this. Regardless of what anyone else says, I don't think you can convict a nine year old because it is nearly impossible that he or she understands the affects of his or her actions.

This entire debacle is very suspect to me. What kinds of precedents will this set?

How low can you go?

I haven't spoken a word about this woman thus far because, like mamma says, if you can't say something nice... well, you get the picture.

It's been a rough road for the mother of octuplets, Nadya Suleman. Not only does she have a total of 14 children, live in a three-bedroom home with her mother, and refuse to get a job; but now she's losing her home!

Perez Hilton reports that Nadya's mother has neglected to pay any mortgage payments since May 2008!

After digging around a bit, I've also found that this family has trouble paying for anything. TMZ.com has discovered that around two years ago, she got a boot on her van for having multiple delinquent parking citations while going to class at Cal State Fullerton. Not only was her car disabled, but she had left two of her children in the car while she was in class! Check out the story and the pictures here.

After all the headlines, I have something to say. Buckle up kiddies, it's time for a rant.

I would first like to say that I do not have issues with reproductive aids for those who need them. I understand that many times, one of two partners in a couple may be infertile. I am not sure what Nadya's reasoning is, but again, when it comes to her body, I believe she can do what she wants with it and face the consequences when they come around.

Regardless of my beliefs, however, she has crossed the line into irresponsibility. She is being a reckless mother. I am not one to judge as I am not a parent, but I cannot imagine under the current circumstances that these children will grow up with the resources they need to have a healthy, productive, and meaningful life. No matter what Suleman says, no matter how much love is in her heart, it will be difficult for her to provide herself emotionally to that many children at once.

This woman is being reckless financially as well. She knew that she could not afford her kids. From the looks of this recent website, she was looking to get donations to help raise them all along, just as many multiple-birth couples have had in the past. The difference is that those couples were trying to help themselves, Suleman is not. Allegedly, she has a nanny that takes care of the kids--for $500 a week! Five-hundred dollars a week for a nanny when they can't afford to keep their home? She's not even working to try to support them! This nanny is naive--where is this money coming from? She claims not to be getting help from the government, but recent revelations reveal those claims to be complete bullshit.

I feel sorry for these children and I hope that they are able to reach every goal that they set in their lives. I feel sorry that their mother is so irresponsible and batshit crazy. I can only hope that there is someone out there that will give the kids what they need to succeed. I am not one to advocate families being separating, but if things don't begin to straighten out, maybe the foster system would be a better option.

What this woman does with her life is none of my business--to each her own. My concern is for the children and her irresponsibility, I feel, is going to make lasting impressions on each of them.

Maybe it's just me, but...

I am so sick of hearing about financial problems!

I don't mean to sound like a complainer, it's just starting to clog the news like nothing before.

We all have heard about the financial bailout, the car maker bailout, the economic bailout, and now we will have a homeowner bailout. Not only that but we hear about the scandals with Blagojevich, Burris, and now UBS. When is this crazy train gonna pull up to the station and let everyone off?

Can't we hear about something intriguing? I don't mean to complain, but I would rather hear about the missing little girl in Florida or the crazy chimp that mauled a woman this week. Those are the real stories, everything else is just a broken record with no humanity.

Blame it on Barbie!

Mattel's internationally popular doll, Barbie, turns 50 this year.

After hearing comments about Barbie, I ask you--do you think that the ever-popular doll has shifted the focus from female practicality to female superficiality? Has she played a part in the explosion of materialism? Is she a beauty or a bitch?

Whether life is imitating art, or art imitating life, Barbie has certainly played a roll in the lives of many children for generations. It doesn't look like she's going to stop anytime soon.

It's a cover up I tell you!

So what was the fireball that was seen plummeting to the ground through the skies over Texas on Sunday?

U.S. Strategic Command tracks satellite debris and says that the fireball was not related to the Russian and American satellites that collided last week.

There goes the logical explanation. Others say that it could've been a meteor, through they normally aren't visible during daylight hours.

I don't know what it could be, but it is awfully fishy that it made news about a year after the Texas UFO sightings. I am not one to believe in the unexplainable, but that picture to the right sure does look blurry. Y'all know that's the first sign of a cover-up: low resolution! It's 2009 and it's getting to the point that we can't count the megapixels on our cameras on both hands. Did the photographer smear Vasoline on the lens?

Check out CNN's coverage by clicking on the picture.

Face to face

With all the bad that we hear on the news, it's imperative that we celebrate the little victories.

Back in December, you may remember hearing about an anonymous woman who received the first-ever face transplant. She has suffered face trauma that had disabled her from doing simple things like drinking from a cup. As you can see from the picture to the left, such an injury would drastically change your way of functioning. She couldn't even smell anything!

CNN.com is reporting that the patient is now regaining confidence. Apparently people would call her names when she would walk down the street. How cruel! I can imagine that it would be shocking to see someone who had suffered such injuries, but taunting her is out of line! They should keep their mouths shut. I am sure the woman didn't ask for her face to be disfigured.

Be sure to check out CNN's full story here.

How did I miss this??

I am sure that this is a mock-up by somebody (because we all know how secretive Apple can be), but this would be an awesome idea. I am in the market for one of the new aluminum Macbooks, and in my hunt for consumer reviews, I found this photo on Flickr. Apple believes that there is no market for such a device. I am not sure if there would be or not if it remained in the tablet form, but if it were a convertible touch screen (that is, a keyboard that would fold away), there would be a demand for such a netbook.

What do you guys think? Have you seen this photo before?--it is about a year old now. If you're an Apple fan like I am, what do you think something like this would do for the company?

Pay your bills Kansas!

Kansas is broke, y'all!

The state says that it doesn't have enough money in its main account to pay the bills, nor do they have enough to give income tax refunds or to pay state employees.

This shouldn't be happening! It's a good thing that the bailout was passed, maybe Kansas can use their aid so that all the families that are dependent on state paychecks will end up all right.

Click here to check out the article from The Wichita Eagle to get all the details.

Time to sing "Kumbaya" y'all!

The Senate passed its version of President Obama's stimulus package today. Now that both houses of Congress have passed the measure, it's time for them to reconcile the bill.

It seems that the package's future is just as uncertain as ever. Though it is now certain to happen, to what degree is yet to be seen.

Let's hope that this shiz works! Everyday we are hearing about new layoffs. GM announced today that it will be eliminating 10,000 jobs. These are hard times for everyone.

Check out the full report from CNN.com.

The plots thicken

Well, it seems that singer Chris Brown and swimmer Michael Phelps are going through some similar trials. Both Brown and Phelps are both losing contracts over their alleged crimes. Brown has recently lost his contracts with DoubleMint and has had his "Milk" ads pulled.

It was announced today that there have been eight arrests in association with the party at which Phelps took bong hits--seven for possession and one for distribution. Apparently, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford sees no reason why the sheriff is prosecuting these people.

My opinion? In a word, the Phelps scandal is bull, the Brown scandal is sickening.

Would you like fries with that?

We all knew it was only going to be a matter of time. I knew it when I first saw the spinach quiche at a local store. Turns out that frou-frou coffee giant Starbucks will begin to offer a breakfast menu.

Say what you will, Starbucks brews some damn good coffee--their lattes make me swoon. I am not sure how I feel about their new move--somewhat the inverse of McDonald's recent move to premium coffee offerings. I am sure it will beautify the company's bottom line, but what will it do culturally? Can't Starbucks just remain a coffee house?

The company single-handedly introduced Americans to otherwise unheard of coffee beverages (even if the names of these beverages are someone inaccurate). What will the new menu have to offer? Could be interesting.

Click here to check out the full story on U.S News.com.

Our prayers are being heard

Mac geeks, lend me your ears!

It may have gone under the radar in the news today, but to those of you who find yourselves tied to your Macs and/or iPhones, you may soon have even more reason to stay tied to your televisions. It seems that Apple is considering producing a proper TV set.

Apple already produces a device called Apple TV--a set-top box that is essentially an extension of the iTunes Store. This is not to be confused with the alleged television that is rumored to be somewhere on Apple's drawing board.

Mac NN reported the story yesterday afternoon. Be sure to check it out here for the full details of this exciting story. Maybe I will be able to use my iPhone to change the channels on my TV one day. That would be sweet.

Note to self...

Watch vintage footage of baseball games before all players started juicing. Must everyone in the public eye these days be a bad example for children?

Disgusting!!

Firstly, to both of my readers, I am sorry for my absence, and perhaps my continued absence. I caught a horrible bug that is keeping me in bed. So while I wait for the Nyquil to kick in let me just say:

What I've caught is nothing compared to what former heartthrob Chris Brown is gonna catch.

Brown has allegedly battered his girlfriend, and equally-famous pop icon, Rihanna. There are reports that not only did he hit her (and quite severely I might add), but he also bit her! What a monster.

Violence is not the answer y'all.

What's more, PerezHilton.com posted a video today that shows Brown just before he began dating Rihanna. In the video, he speaks about women and says that he would never abuse a woman. He also keeps talking about the "hood." Um, Chris--last time I checked, Tappahanock, Virginia was not the hood. Way to keep it real buddy!

Though updates and reports will continue to fly in, this seems to be the end for Brown. To me, this is more tragic than the scandal surrounding Michael Phelps. What message does this send to a hip-hop community already plagued with misogyny?

What a way to tell a story...

There is a really cool website called the Electronic Literature Collection which contains several websites that pioneers in creating hypertexts online. As part of my English 344, Digital Writing class, we were asked to critique one of these pages.

I chose one called Solilouy in which writer Kenneth Goldsmith records every word that he says within a week. When I first read the description, I thought "wow, it's like an instant nonfiction story." I couldn't imagine a better way to inspire further writings then to record your own words.

Goldsmith used a voice-activated recorder to be sure every utterance was captured. I must say, he got every word, but nonetheless, I was a bit let down.

Though the concept is wonderful, I am not sure that it was as useful in a hypertext as it could've been. Upon visiting the website, you'll notice that the words that appear are only his own--that is, you don't hear the other end of the conversation and therefore there is no context for a week worth of words. Also, the words appear only as the reader mouses over them, then they disappear. Again, we aren't even allowed the context of what was previously said.

The concept is great, but I believe this project could've been better realized.

Check it out guys, let me know if you agree!