Turkey Problem, Solved

Yeah, it’s finally Friday. It seems that ever since I got here that I’ve been counting the days until the weekend. I guess it’s just the classes and all that. Funny, though; at Western, I never thought of it that way; it seemed that there was always something to do and time was never quite enough. Hopefully when I pass the prelims next summer, I can get back to do what I like to do, such as participating in student organizations, networking, learning stuff.

So, back to the turkey thing.

I was thinking about throwing it away, but then I thought about all the people around the world living in poverty, who don’t even have anything to eat, I felt bad, real bad. So with that enormous guilt trip, I decided to keep it. But keeping it doesn’t solve the problem; I have to find a way to eat it.

So I gave it some thought, “what would oily turkey leftovers be good with?” The keyword was oily. I thought of all the meat that were usually oily, like ground beef, and how I would dispose of, I mean, cook it. And then it came to me, I could cook it in tomato/spaghetti sauce. I even went a step further, I would make turkey lasagna.

I first removed all the meat from the bones, and made sure all the meat was bone-free, or at least, as bone-free as I could make it. I cooked it in spaghetti sauce with also a can of stewed tomatoes. All the while, I boiled a pot to cook the lasagna. After everything was prepared, I went through the process of layering the lasagna and meat, also with macaroni noodles leftover from the day before. Then I preheated the oven to 350F and put both casserole dishes in. (Yeah, it required two dishes to finish it.) After a bake time of an hour or so, I checked to see if it was done; it was bubbling, so I would guess it was okay. However, I didn’t taste it until I picked up Kevin from campus.

I went to pick him up around 19:30. After we arrived home, I took the dishes out of the oven and gave it a try. Hmm, not half bad; actually quite okay. Haha, me and my cooking genius!!!

After that, I wanted to show Kevin Homeworld 2, but the computers were undergoing routine virus checks. I have the scans scheduled for Friday nights, thinking that I wouldn’t be home (more like outside partying) using the computer during that time. See how that thinking turned out.

During the wait for the scans to finish, we fiddled around with the portable DVD player, using our Firefly DVDs. It’s quite a nifty device. And the series is excellent as always, even through multiple viewings.

When the virus scans were completed, I then proceeded to show Kevin what Homeworld 2 looked like, how it controlled, and how epic the battles were. I had the urge to shout out, “CONTACT! CONTACT! Multiple enemy contacts sighted!” Which then I would say, “Battle stations! Identify contacts!” And then I would reply, “Contacts identified as three interceptor squadrons, two bomber squads, two gunship and two pulsar gunship squadrons. There are also two torpedo and ion beam frigates. Wait! There is a hyperspace signature! Sir! It’s a carrier!

“It’s a damn invasion. All hands to battle stations, ready weapons! Contact fleetcom and tell them to send in the reserves ASAP! Helmsmen, set course, 220, inclination 25 degrees, full speed ahead!

“Release weapons safety, target nearest frigate, fire on my mark… FIRE!”

And then a glorious battle would ensue.

After the space cleared of plasma and debris, it was time to… install the new hard drive that we bought last Friday. Kevin did the whole installation thing; he removed the side panel, installed it, checked and formatted it, then installed it inside the external enclosure. Plus he installed the other hard drive originally in the enclousure into the computer. It seems that he has a gift towards many things electronic. He changed (and is still in the process of) the switches in the house, fixed broken circuits, fiddled with the garage light, and has done quite an excellent job on all of them. I told him that if we ever find ourselves without a job, we could go into the house restoration business. Him being the electrician, me the carpenter, and the two of us together would be plumbers as well as many other things.

But that's if things don't go as planned.

Oily Turkey

Today was a bit colder than usual. At least, that’s how I felt when I woke up. The three layers of blankets I have (one normal blanket, one sleeping bag and one knit blanket) just isn’t cutting it. It’s more like the middle layer (sleeping bag) is so slippery that it’s next to impossible to keep all the covers in place. Or that I really should turn up the heat.

I got a call from Randy in the morning about the study session. I told him that we won’t be meeting today; and since it was still quite early, like around 09:30, I went back to bed. When I woke up, I checked my email and chatted with dad and mom using Skype. It’s nice to talk for free, but the old microphone/headphone combo accessory is hurting my head. Guess it’s time to get a new one.

Today’s double serving of macroeconomics was, well, bad. During the first class, we went over one, just one freaking homework question. And the thing was that the professor asked a fellow classmate to come up to the board to do it. It basically took the whole class period. I feel sorry for the guy, it wasn’t his fault that he made some mistakes, but the way Minetti was breathing down his necking, berating him on him mistakes, man, that was lame. If I was the guy, I would get back the evaluations we did in class just before and write up some stuff.

The second class went a bit better, marginally, at the most. We went over that same question again, and did some comparative statics of it using the steady state equilibrium. Then the professor fielded questions from the class on various related topics. And that took another class period. Randy and Nick didn’t show up for the second one, and I wouldn’t blame them; I guess they were just fed up with the BS.

After class, I was lucky and caught the 16:00 bus. Once I got home, I cleaned up the place a little, cooked myself dinner, which was a small disaster. It’s not that I blew up the kitchen or anything, far from it. But the ingredients were a bit “off”.

I say “off” as in the stuff wasn’t what I expected. Since yesterday I had spaghetti, I decided that for today I’d go with the turkey leftovers. I cooked up the remnants of the turkey in a pot (note: need to get bigger pot) back during Thanksgiving weekend, thinking that the meat would be good for some meals and stuff. WRONG! Turkey leftovers are oily, oily as in once you have it in your mouth, it’s like eating pure blubber, then it “slides” down your throat and into your stomach, and it feels like you just swallowed a jar of Vaseline (don’t ask, I never did and will not try it). I guess it’s a lost cause, so unless someone comes up with cool turkey leftover recipes, I’m not touching the thing.

Lessons learnt, though: when having turkey leftovers, maintain the state they were in, as in leave it as is. If were to cook it all together, be sure to remove the skin first, and hope for the best.

Finding Homeworld

Before I talk about the title, let me get some housekeeping content out of the way.

Being a Wednesday, I had microeconomics in the morning, econometrics in the afternoon. The morning was a bit hectic for me. I missed the bus, so I had to drive over. I didn’t time it too well, so I ended up a bit late for class. Luckily I didn’t miss any material because teaching evaluations were underway. So I actually ended up just fine save for having to go to campus again late at night to “retrieve” my ride.

Before getting to class, I woke up to another chilly morning; there was a bit of snow on the ground. The accumulation level would be something I call “pathetic.” Darn it, if it’s winter, and there should be snow, let there be plenty of snow, instead of this little, tiny, not-snowish, thingy on the ground.

I wonder why people choose to stay at places where there is winter. Or to be more precise, I should ask the question, “why won’t people ‘migrate’ when the weather turns cold but stay?” Is it because they have homes here, or…?

Sometimes I wonder if we missed the whole idea of being part of nature, instead of changing nature (to suit our ways). I’ll reserve all this for more philosophical discussions later.

Back to class things, talking about evaluations, from what I heard, our microeconomics professor got great if not excellent marks. I wish the same could be said for our econometrics professor (we had the evaluations on Monday). It seems that there was a general consensus that a better job could have been done. Oh well, I’m the diplomatic type, and I think that sometimes when I don’t learn that much in class, it might not be just the professor, but there could be some issues within myself.

Lunch in Old Botany was nice, not too many people there this time, just a few choice friends. Most of us, after finishing lunch, went to work on the last (yipee-kay-yeah MF, last one) econometrics homework. There were some confusion on what the questions stated, but in the end, it was done and that was that.

I came home, kicked off my shoes, ran up stairs, depositing stuff on the staircase on the way, and turned on my computers. It’s nice, perhaps a bit too nice, to be at home. I guess when it comes down to preparing for the prelims, I can’t relax like this. Oh well, one thing at a time; first finals, then more class, then finals, then prelims. I’ll tackle them one by one, in a way that will maximize my utility! Take that! See, I learn things from the program. I can even incorporate econ jargon in my daily musings.

During dinner, I got a surprise phone call from Dr. Wheeler. He was calling about my whereabouts and what I’m doing. He was making sure that I graduated (of course I did) and is currently enrolled in the econ PhD program at MSU. He said the reason for his call was that the university was going over all the graduate programs, a review, if you will.

Being in the thick of things back at Western through my participation in IPC, GSAC and IEC, it seems that nothing is safe when money is tight. I hope that the cuts won’t hurt my alma mater too much. From participating (as a student member of IEC) in the international office reorganization, to seeing Jin leave, and hearing GSAC and the graduate students talk about the full time status change, it just seems that things aren’t going that well back in Kalamazoo. Hopefully, things will turn around and through this hardship; the institution will become better because of it.

After dinner, I took the 21:35 bus to get to campus and drive my car back. I also brought what Becky and Tammy left at my place (containers) during Thanksgiving so I could return it to them. I also was reminded through MSN that I still owe our Miss Tammy $3.36 in gift money. That I also brought with me.

I met Tammy at the Owen Lobby where she was filling out a service request to fix her malfunctioning door light. We then proceeded to the café where she shared (more like gave me) two slices of nice cream egg-thing pie with me. She said she was watching her figure, I say, bring it on! I’m not one to be worried about figure, as a matter of fact, I think I could use some more blubber, especially with the cold weather and all.

We then chatted about various things and with a reminder that I have to write up my blog, I left campus around 23:00. So here I am. As for what went down during Thanksgiving weekend, we’ll see.

Note:

I noticed that when I was placing the links for GSAC and IPC, that their websites haven’t been updated in a long time. I’ve already graduated, and they still have my name listed as the rep from econ (for GSAC). The e-board is also the old one for IPC. At least the university is keeping its council info updated.

Crap, it was when I was doing formatting when I noticed the title for this entry, “Finding Homeworld”, that I remembered I was supposed to talk about “Homeworld”. Well, Homeworld is a game, a sci-fi space RTS. It was revolutionary for its time, namely because it was “the one” game that implemented movement and attacks in 3D in an easy and efficient way.

The story is supposed to be awesome, I don’t know yet, because I’ve been only playing the demo (of both Homeworld 1 & 2). But it does seem promising so far. Not to mention, the graphics in Homeworld 2 is very nice. Hopefully I can get it as a Christmas present to play with after I finish my finals. You hear that Santa!? That’s what will be my Christmas present. Of course, in addition to the M1-A2 I’ve asked for, not to mention the F/A-18 E plus all the assortment of armaments and stuff. Say, do the rockets come in dozens, or can I get them in bulk?

Whoa, How Time Flies

I don’t know how she does it, but dang! Our Miss Tammy here keeps a daily blog, with photos and music and everything. She’s the “man”, uh, more like the “woman”! I would like to say the lack of updates is because I’m lazy, but that’s not really true. If I could explain myself, possible excuses that I would use would be: 1) I value my sleep time too much to stay up a bit late and put everything down. 2) I, hmm, don’t really have that much excuses, or I know, I’ll simply state that 3) I don’t really have that much to say (which is again, not true). I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and do it.

Which brings me to the past few days; Thanksgiving weekend and all that. Let’s start forward, then backward, by that I mean starting from today than go back.

So, today, Tuesday, November 29th, 2005. Our study group decided that we won’t be meeting this morning to go over the econometrics homework (which reminds me, I have to finish it), so I slept in a bit late, and then reheated leftovers from yesterday for lunch. Leftovers are always nice, especially when “it” technically isn’t leftovers, but a series of wholesome meals prepared by my good self over the weekend. I have ground beef with pickles (Chinese pickles, if you can all them that), spaghetti sauce with an emphasis in veggies, and of course, turkey from Thanksgiving. All this makes it a breeze to enjoy a meal; all I have to do is cook some rice, heat up some buns, or simply boil some noodles. Add a bit of side dishes, like fresh lettuce with tasty dressing, and I’m all set. I still hate the clean-up process, though. That’s why the dishwasher was invented!

So, after two grueling classes of macroeconomics, I headed home after a short stay at Old Botany to go over the homework with a few of my classmates. The reason for two Macroeconomic classes is that our professor won’t be available next week, so he decided to add another two classes to this week’s regular two. It wasn’t that bad, until I got called up to do some problems. I have the notes, and I went over it, but there were some specifics that I couldn’t recall; not to mention, there were times when I didn’t know what he was asking for. But in the end, I guess it was a good experience because by putting me on the spot, I learned stuff, lots of it, and quickly, too.

So I came home, did some house-keeping, ate dinner and started some homework, and here I am. Let’s go back a day, to Monday, November 28th, 2005.

Monday was like, wake up early, go to class, and don’t be grumpy because it’s the first day of the week. For me, I had something to look forward to, of course that being Monday Night Football. The evening’s game was between the unbeaten Colts and the Steelers with what’s-his-name QB back in the lineup. (I have to check to remember the spelling, it’s Roethlisberger. I wonder if he ever forgot how to spell his last name when he was a kid.)

Peyton Manning and the Colts were quick to score, with an 80+ yard touchdown pass (the first offensive play for them, made it on first down) to heat up the game. The Steelers seem to get back into the game with an interception that resulted in a touchdown, but after a failed on-side kick at the beginning of the second half, it was all Colts. Now the Colts are 11-0 and there’s talk about history and all that. It’s the talk of the town (more like those interested in football) and it shows, with the media all over it. Thank goodness for my subscription to SI so I can get additional insight. (This reminds me that I have to renew my subscription).

Oh yeah, of course, before the game, I went to class, had lunch at Old Botany, then class in the afternoon. Usually on Monday’s, I would go back home after class, but this being MNF night, and having no signal whatsoever at my place, I choose to stalk out Owen, passing time by doing my homework.

So after class, I did go home, did some chores, brought the “incentive” to Kevin and have him “process” it, then drove him to Totally Takeout. I already ate when I was home. After I dropped him off, I parked at the Wharton Center parking structure and actually walked through the building to exit and then head to Owen. While inside Wharton Center, I saw various full size posters advertising numerous musicals that are scheduled to appear. Shows like “The Lion King”, “Annie” and the like. Crystal said she and Anita would like to go to “The Lion King”, but I haven’t made up my mind on that. We’ll see.

So at Owen, I did homework. I was so engrossed (more like totally fed-up with the BS) that I didn’t notice the gang enter. Of course it was Tammy that announced their presence with, “Oh, this guy looks familiar, who could it be?” I guess they are a bit surprised to see me there. While they are getting settled, Luis, a classmate of mine (also Arthur’s suitemate) was also eating in the Owen cafeteria. We invited him over and chatted while they ate and I wrote. Tammy admonished me for doing my homework while they were eating, so I stopped. Boy is she pushy.

After that, they all left, leaving me to my own devices. I was about burned-out around 20:30, so I went downstairs to play some free arcade. Around nine, I went upstairs back to the cafeteria and got the TV all to myself. I had to call Kevin though to get the channel number for ABC (remember, it is #21). One of the upper year econ students, Kamyar was also there. He’s a sports fan as well.

So, I watched the game. Eric showed up. He was there to get dinner. Tammy showed up with her cute notebook and joined us at the table. She was more intent on making “buttons” than watching the game with us. Not to mention, she kept on pestering me with questions that were like, oh well. The answer is “It’s OKAY! REALLY!”

Close to 23:00, the café closed, so we headed downstairs. The TV room was occupied with a dude watching Futurama. We played some more of the arcade to pass the time until it was 23:00, or until the guy left so we could watch the game. In the end, we got to watch the game until it ended. It was a bit anticlimactic toward the end, when the lead was 16 plus points (the final score was 26-7). But a win is a win, and it was a good win for Manning and the Colts. I hope the Super Bowl match-up this year will be the Colts against the Panthers (they’re my team, if I never mentioned it previously), that would be so cool. As for who will win, or who I want to win, that’s another story.

So, I’ve finished the past two days, so on my next journal entry, I’ll cover Thanksgiving. Come to think of it, I shouldn’t state it so blatantly, so it’s more like “if it’s there, it’s there; if not, then it won’t be there, more like never”.