I have seen the swallow-dance incorporated into so many films and videos, but I think this is probably right up there among my favourites.

I was expecting the motor to give way before this happened.


I knew this day would come, with all the torture I put it through but it's depressing, nevertheless.

The gorgeous opening sequence of the Pillars of the Earth.

::Download Flash Video::

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With an awesome score by Trevor Morris.

Without the SFX

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

The wikipedia entry on the French Press reads...

A French press consists of a narrow cylindrical beaker usually made of glass or clear plastic, equipped with a lid and a "plunger", made of metal or plastic, which fits tightly in the cylinder and which has a fine wire or nylon mesh filter.

Because the coffee grounds remain in direct contact with the brewing water and the grounds are filtered from the water via a mesh instead of a paper filter, coffee brewed with the French press captures more of the coffee's flavour and essential oils, which would become trapped in a traditional drip brew machine's paper filters.

So does this mean that using a mesh filter instead of paper filters will produce better coffee in a regular coffee maker?

Reviews for this gold mesh coffee filter on Amazon don't really address the question of taste. Has anyone tried the mesh filter instead of paper and noticed their coffee tasting better?

Okay, so you are thinking of moving to Buffalo, or are in Buffalo and looking for a high speed internet service? Well, let me make your decision a little easier with simple and easy-to-remember points.
1. Verizon has the WORST dsl service in Buffalo and Western New York.
2. Their technical help is non-existent and they put you on hold for an average of 1/2 hour.
3. After 1/2 hour or more of holding, they transfer you to an outsourced call center where people speak with strange made-up imitation American accents - that are even more difficult to understand than what their regular accents might have been.
4. Most of Verizon's technical support personnel have a flowchart in front of them that automatically assumes that the customer is an idiot and needs to be told to check their wall sockets a zillion times over.
5. Verizon's technical service representatives are masters at evading the real issue and waste as much of your time as they possibly can.
6. And as for Verizon's DSL service, you seldom get more than 1/4th of the speed you paid for and they couldn't care less about your concerns - as amply demonstrated by their mind-numbingly inept technical "support".

Avoid Verizon. Ditch them if you have them. I am not sure if Time Warner is good but I am pretty sure that no one can be worse than Verizon in Buffalo and the whole of WNY.

Update on RoadRunner: I just phoned them and in spite of what their web page here: says about their rates, they outright denied that the Road Runner Lite and Basic packages even exist and tried their surly best to sign me on to their TV-Phone-Internet bundle. The fact that I don't have a TV and don't plan to get one just to put their service on seemed incomprehensible to the bloke I spoke to. Seems to me that both Verizon and Time Warner run their shoddy off-peak time technical/sales support services through the same herd of insolent and rude technical representatives. This has been one totally frustrating evening. Maybe I need to start making plans to poison entire call centers of both Verizon and Time Warner. Both of you, I hope all your employees are cut off internet services when they really need it.

This is an easy low glycemic index, high protein soup, especially for (e:leetee).


You will need:
1. Split yellow peas (soaked overnight and steamed with salt till soft) GI: 32
2. 1 big zucchini GI: 15
3. 1 big green bell pepper GI: 15
4. Several ripe tomatoes blended GI: 15
5. 1 white onion Gl: 10
6. Curry leaves
7. Less than a teaspoon olive oil
8. Black Mustard seeds (a pinch)
9. Dried red chillies
10. Minced garlic
11. Turmeric powder
12. A bunch of Kale
13. Powdered coriander/cilantro seeds

- Heat the olive oil in the pan
- Drop in several torn shreds of dried red chillies and mustard seeds.
- Give it an occasional stir, till mustard seeds just about start to sputter.
- Add the chopped curry leaves (a good bunch of them), powdered coriander seeds, minced garlic and chopped onions.
- Saute till onions are translucent.
- Add the chopped zucchini, finely chopped kale, a pinch of turmeric and green bell peppers. Saute for a couple minutes.
- Add the blended tomatoes and the cooked yellow peas, give it all a good stir, bring to a boil.

Add salt to taste. And that's it - a soup that is guaranteed to be tasty, satisfying and that will not tax your insulin stores. :-)

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PS: Split yellow peas don't taste like green peas at all, they are extremely rich in protein and have a very low glycemic index.
PPS: I am going to try and post more recipes for you (e:leetee). Being vegetarian is probably the easiest way to keep the diabetes in check.

Yes, I really did go on a rampage. I have been eating so unimaginatively this past month. I had to break the pattern and went power-walking to Guercio's today. On the way, I thought I saw the (e:twins) ambling down the other side - but I was in tearing haste to beat the thunderstorm and didn't verify their identities - they could well have been these two. Who knows...

I got the most delightful looking aubergine at Guercio's. Apparently, it comes from Sicily.

But everybody knows it was grown near New Jersey. At least, I know I am 95% right because that is the % of things that claim to be from Italy but turn out to have some plebeian connection to all and sundry in NJ.

And I got the St. Dalfour orange marmalade sweetened with grape juice.

It's okay - not splendid. I should have got the Scottish brand. The frogs don't always get it quite right. Especially the old ones who probably devised the old recipe. Maybe it was a recipe of convenience and they didn't use the traditional bitter Seville orange? Still, it's probably better health-wise than the sugar-laden Scottish version, which probably has deep fried orange bits in it. One never knows, what with their obscene fondness for everything greasy and all.

Got the mascarpone once again. I swear I am becoming addicted to this awesome cheese. I especially like it with coffee. Hmmm... let's see, what else was exciting... Oh yeah, the Coop had purple bell peppers. They colour-matched the NJ aubergines so I had to get them. I also found that the Coop sells bulk wheat bran. I got a pound because I can then add it to my bread and pretend that it's more healthful for me. The Coop coupons are such a joke though. You think you save a dollar with the coupons, but really, they have marked up the prices to more than double the general market price of anything with a coupon. Very underhand.

Some old man wearing an open shirt with cut-off sleeves, many bead necklaces and some missing teeth thought I was an old acquaintance and gave me a thread bracelet with a plastic fish on it. I can't, for the life of me, remember where I have met him before.

Guercio's was magical, as always. I got this olive oil.

I hope it doesn't turn out as bland as the one I got last time. I have learned to stay well away from blended olive oils. They are a slap in the face of decent olive oils everywhere. Talking about olive oils, I noticed that there is a sign for a new store on west side of Elmwood near Lafayette that will apparently sell only olive oils and vinegars. Interesting... I wonder what their business plan will be. I hope not: "buy everything from Guercio's and sell it at an atrocious mark-up". That does seem to be the MO of everyone operating on the strip, in general. I saw Guercio's home-brand olive oil at the Coop - they were selling it for a whopping 60% more.

Oh and the Coop was giving out samples of their merchandise in the morning. I sampled something called the Tofu-cashew spread. What a cool idea. I am making up my own recipe for this - but with almonds or maybe chick-peas or maybe sunflower-seeds... (e:leetee), if I blunder ahead with this, the recipe will be dedicated to you. :-) I wanted to go and hang out at the harbour, but the weight of the groceries dragged me back home.

So (e:lilho), there you have it. I shall be joining the mini-me's now.

I want to be evil... little evil me!
I want to see some dissipation in my face...
And in the theatre, I want to change my seat
So I can step on everybody's feet....
Just as mean and evil
As I can be....

And I absolutely DETEST sites and plugins that will only work with Firefox. Firefox may have been the darling of the opensource-the-damn-browser enthusiasts back in the day but its S.L.O.W, outdated and paleolithic compared to the blisteringly fast and spiffy chrome. I refuse to let some hideous web-application bully me into installing what I believe is a far inferior browser than Chrome.

I hope whoever developed the non-chrome compatible web presentation software from the company called Webex rots in slow browser world for their atrocious browser-discrimination crimes. I am also disappointed that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) uses this freak Webex company for their webinar. Hate you both for making me suffer with Firefox yesterday and today, for having to deal with the zillion yucky registry entries your dear plugin and Firefox have left on my system. My clean system feels so polluted, no thanks to you, NCI and Webex. UGH.

A favourite song from one of my favourite movies set to the evil tactics of one of my favourite stars.



Who wouldn't want to be evil?!

Just read this critical, well-written and well-researched piece on why healthcare in this country is so expensive and yet so ineffective and wasteful: (pdf version of the report).

Healthcare might well be the biggest bureaucratic easy money-making scheme in the US - if you are on the right side of the bed. It's a pity that socialistic medicine is mocked and labeled with such derision by the section of the population that prides itself on understanding fiscal independence so well. Capitalistic healthcare is an oxymoron and always will be.

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Related interesting statistics: