Another game

http://whoisthemostfamous.com/

This is utterly simple and surprisingly addictive. You're given a first name, and you answer with the first surname that pops into your head. The idea is not to think about it too hard. I am hopeless at it! For instance when "Jude" came up, I put in "the obscure" which shows my incorrigible nerdery as well as dates me. The name I should have given is "Law", of course. Give it a go.

All this ephemera is pure displacement activity. I have lots of serious stuff I should be doing but it's easier to sit here and play games.

Another timewaster

Should you be in the mood to calculate your life expectancy, do so here. Another quality way to fritter away some time! Just remember that it's an American site when you're entering your weight, and enter it in pounds. I tried to put mine in as kilos and it decided I must be a child. Someone else got a result of 150 years, until he changed it to pounds. I was doing ok until I got to the question about alcohol consumption. Oh well.

How fast do you read?

Sorry about the dearth of posts, real life has been occupying far too much of my time lately. I hope that things will be returning to their usual state of dream-like lassitude shortly. In the meantime, here is a fun quiz to occupy a few minutes of your time:

Source: Staples eReader Department

Moth close up, and kale crisps

There's a moth on my computer's speakers. I guess it was attracted during the night by the tiny blue light that indicates that the speakers are on. It's been there all day, so I've been having a really good look at it. It looks ... furry. I want to stroke it but that would be bad.

My new project: Eat more veg, motivated by Dr Wahls and her inspirational Minding your mitochondria TED lecture. I've been reading about kale and what a nutritional powerhouse it is, but it has never appealed to me as a veg. But I do love crisp salty snacks (who doesn't?) and recipes for kale chips or crisps have been floating around on the net for a few years now. So having kale growing in the garden, I thought I'd experiment with making kale crisps.

The type of kale I have in the garden is the curly sort, which isn't optimal but I persevered anyway. It takes a heap of washing to get all the bugs and bits lurking in those frizzy leaves washed away. I washed the leaves in four changes of water, and then tore the leaves away from those tough stalks and dried them in a salad spinner.

 Leaves in the colander waiting to be washed, dried and torn into pieces.

 I put the leaves in a bowl and massaged generous glugs of avocado oil into all the little frizzy crevices. Avocado is my current favourite oil at the moment. I love its thick green unctuousness.

 I spread the leaves into a baking tray, and sprinkled them with chili flakes and sea salt and fan baked them at C150 degrees for 15 minutes, turning them once or twice. They go a rather unattractive shade of brown, and shrink to about half their volume.

The whole baking tray of kale leaves shrank down to this many crisps. I ate them all as a snack. They were pretty good. Not as great as potato crisps, but pretty damn good and unlike sinful potato crisps, they are really really good for you so you can eat as many as you like and feel virtuous about it!

They would be much better made with a different variety of kale though, so I have ordered some seeds of different kale varieties, namely Cavolo Nero and Red Russian. I've also ordered a packet of borekale (aka collards or dalmatian cabbage) seeds, another nutritional heavy hitter.

Happy Birthday Mr Dickens; and back on a diet

I'm a day late in wishing Charles Dickens a happy 200th birthday. Here is a very cute BBC animation.


Now that I'm going grey myself, this Dickens quote seems very true: "Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs."

Inspired by John Gray over at Going Gently, who has started a Monday weigh-in and who is going gangbusters on Weight Watchers and losing weight at a great rate, I am back on a strict Paleo diet. Meat, veges, COFFEE! plus a short fast once a week. I've managed to knock off 2 kilos (about 5 pounds) in two weeks.  Another 8 kilos and I'll be very happy. And now that I'm on a diet again, I smile at this Dickens quote, which seems very 21st Century: "There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate."

Summertime

I cam across this really interesting post by Joe Nocera on The New York Times website about Gershwin's "Summertime". It seems that there are at least 25,000 recordings of the song. He gives video links to different versions, including the Ella clip I've posted (which is my favourite), Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, even REM, who don't do a bad job at all. Norah Jones does a terrific version. There's a rather odd version from Nick Drake, and a version from the Doors, and a great version from Doc Watson, recorded in 2007 when Doc must have been around 86 and still in fine voice.

It's a treat. I still haven't listened to them all, but I'm getting there.

Camouflage art

I came across this interesting artist the other day:

Chinese artist Lui Bolin camouflages himself into any surroundings with paint. It can take him up to 10 hours for a single shot. More pictures here on WTF, where I also found this artist:

Cecelia Parades, who uses her own body, make up and paint, to blend herself into her own intricate paintings. More pictures here at WTF.

And it may be unworthy, (or maybe I'm just envious), but I can't help thinking that some people have a lot of time on their hands.

Hydrangeas

They're past their best now so I thought I had better take some photos before they fade completely. They're getting a battering from the fierce winds we've been getting lately.

I love hydrangeas. Wherever I live I try to plant daphne, a lemon tree, and hydrangeas. I planted these seven years ago, soon after I moved here, and they're thriving. I look out at them from the kitchen window when I'm doing the dishes. The yard was completely bare when I moved in, not a plant to be seen. I thought the blue flowers would look good against the fence with the paddocks in the background, and I was right, they do.

I planted the hydrangeas first, and then a while later built the little rockery and planted the trees. I found out later that the Mexican daisy in the foreground is considered a pest plant so I keep it well in check - it spreads itself around with great enthusiasm.

This was all bare gravel when I moved in - now it's a bloomin' jungle! I got somewhat carried away, as you do. Now I have to keep cutting things back to make sure there's still room to drive up to the house and to park my car.

Casting call for Hobbits

There's a casting call for extras for The Hobbit:

We are looking for MEN & WOMEN for a VARIETY of characters

• MEN – under 5’4” (163cm)
• WOMEN – under 5” (155cm)
• BIG MEN – with character faces – 5’9 and over (175cm+) 
• MEN with LARGE biceps any height.
• WOMEN with character faces
• MEN & WOMEN – ELVES slim, athletic, 5’5” – 6’4” (165 – 203cm)

I reckon I could meet the "character face" requirement, but I'm three inches too tall. It's not often that I'm too tall for anything!

The full ad is here on Trade Me.

I'll wait

No thanks, I'll wait until I get home.

(thanks to Ana at Sideswipe for the photo)