Corn Nudes

I saw a package of interesting looking noodles at the store a month ago, so I bought them. Usually the noodles here are the white wheat noodle sort, typically like Japanese soba noodles, if you've ever had them. However, these particular noodles were from Korea and are made from corn. I thought to myself "Hey, I like corn. These might be an interesting change."

So... a month goes by and I didn't make them. Tonight I was totally starved and it's too late to go out to get food, so I decided to try out the corn nudes. Mistake. They're slimy, soggy, and have an odd metallic flavor (like the flavor of a house key in your mouth). Yuck.

Lesson learned: sometimes your favorite foods in a different form are not what you think. Like a hamburger candybar. Probably not a good idea.

A small view of Yichang, China

Here's another movie. It's not very long, and it's really shaky and blurry, but at least you can see some of what my life is like here. I'll upload some better movies in the near future once I get some more interesting footage shot. I think I might do that tomorrow night.

Have a good weekend everyone!

This week in film

This post has nothing to do with film. Well, kinda it does. Two types of film that have nothing to do with movies.

One is the film that is in the back of my throat after recovering from the flu. I'm better today, but the past two or three days have been miserable.

The other film is the film that would be in my camera, if I still had a film camera. Instead I have a digital camera. I take nice photos.

More movies of the place where I live to come soon, as requested by Mr. Bobby. I have to decide what to film, and it has to stop raining.

homemade, like it should be

As many of you may know, I know my way around the kitchen. I cook almost all my food from scratch in the states, and it's been the same here. Lately I've been getting really bored with the food available and I have a lot of time on my hands, so I've been trying to branch out and try things that I've never made before.

Back in Ohio I realized about a year or so ago that I have a natural knack for baking things. I can make cakes, pies, bread, rolls, almost anything baking related. Well, I decided to try making bagels. Even with the proper equipment this can be a very difficult and time-consuming process, but I wanted to learn. I only have a toaster oven to use to bake my breads and such, so you can imagine how time consuming and tedious a lot of this is.

I made one batch a few weeks ago and they were okay, but something was wrong with the dough and they were a little too... I don't know how to explain. Well, lets just say that the dough just didn't "feel" right. This time around I tried something a little different and they came out PERFECT. I'm eating one right now. Delicious.

I have thought about going to culinary school for baking, just so I can learn some new things. However, someday I need to try to get a real job. I can't be a student for life, though if I had a million dollars I'd spend the rest of my life learning. That's a topic for a different day, though.

footage from the storm

Stupid iFilm. Third edit, this time i used photobucket to upload the video. Copyright bullshit.

David Wain = GENIUS

Something Wicked This Way Comes

We've had some really awesome storms here in the past two days. Yesterday it rained so hard that the windows in my living room starting leaking, then the roof started leaking, then a huge puddle formed in my kitchen. It was coming down so hard you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you. Amazing.

Then the rain slowed, but we had some mild thunder and lightning. I was in my room typing on the computer when I saw a flash of light outside that was so bright it looked like daylight. The peal of thunder followed right after, so I think a building at the university got it. The sound was so loud that all the motion sensitive stairway lights in the neighborhood turned on at the same time. I wish I could've gotten it on film.

Tonight I watch as a storm started rolling in from over the horizon in the direction of the reservoir. The lightning flashes have been very numerous, literally one to three every second, but I think it's just heat lighting because there really isn't any thunder. Every once in a while I can see nice shaft of lightning, but it's always far off. Once the thunder really starts kickin' in I'm going to sit on my balcony and try to get a few shots with my camera.

The lightning hasn't let up for over an hour now. It's all so quiet and calm, though, just bright flashes of light in the sky over and over. It's like a strobe light in the clouds.

Cool.

My favorite restaurant is closed

They went on vacation for three weeks. The food there is really good and just too damn cheap to pass up. I can order two dishes that, the powers combined, make my belly burst; and still I only pay 10RMB, or just a little over one american dollar.

Usually I spend the equivalent of 75 cents on a meal, but there are some damn good fried rice shops where I can eat for 35 cents. Near the primary school where I taught earlier this year there was an awesome hand-made noodle shop where I could get a bowl of saltly, garlicy, soup noodles for 25 cents. As you can see, food is really cheap here.

Even so, it does get old eating the same things over and over again. I try to eat one meal at home and one meal outside every day. I've been losing weight slowly this summer because it's so hot outside that I usually skip a meal because I don't want to walk anywhere. It's funny, though, I feel like I have lost a lot of weight, but I still weigh 68Kg. Perhaps that doesn't seem heavy to some of you, but when you're only 5 foot 5 inches tall, that's a lot.

Damn, I'd kill for two slices of cheese pizza from Flying Pizza right now. No, really, I'd go out and choke-slam some unsuspecting Chinese dude to have it.