Last year Bob get herself a new toy for the kitchen called the Thermomix (DE site). To quote the UK site the device
Thermomix is a super fast food blender and processor that also weighs, cooks, simmers and steams!
It really does replace a bunch of devices in the kitchen, though in our case more only a Magic Mix food processor. You can cook a full in the Thermomix as it has a simmering basket (which can be useful for steaming rice) and whats called a Varoma which is used for steaming vegetables / meat / pasta. It so versatile you can make bread dough, soups, sauces, drinks, desserts and main meals.
Whats odd about the machine, is that you can’t simply go to a store and buy one. They are basically sold via demonstrators, who come to your house and for a couple of hours they come and show you what the machine can do and cook various dishes for you (for instance when Bob had a couple of demos the demonstrator made Wholemeal bread rolls, soup, a dip of some kind and I believe a jam).
You might think its a little dodgy that you can only get the machine this way but it honestly isn’t. Its an expensive machine and they don’t want you to simply discount it because of the price and they want you to truly see what the machine can do which if it sat on a shop shelf you never would (nor would you see how damn easy it is too clean).
You have to convert your recipes a bit to use it, something I do not feel comfortable trying to do yet but thats fine as there are tons of recipes on blogs on the Internet and in the rather busy and very friendly Australian Thermomix forums.
Given I’ve started to use it more, I’m going to (try) and blog the recipes we use with photo’s of what the final dish looked like. I suspect it will be a long time though before you manage to extract and original recipe from me (if ever!)
Sometimes we all do daft things, well at least I do, and a few weeks ago I got involved with a couple of Telltale Games fan videos created by a bloke on the TTG Forums called Silverwolfpet.
He has done a whole bunch of videos before (seriously checkout him out onYouTube) and he decided for Xmas (with the approval of Alan from the TTG forums) to do a tribute video and posted about it in the Back To The Future forum (which if you don’t know, TTG are doing a 5 part adventure game based on Back To The Future, its worth checking out). In a fit of insanity I asked if it was too late to join in, was told it wasn’t so recorded my voice and a video of me miming the words and sent them along.
Here is the completed video that was released a couple of days ago:
You can hear me in a couple places where you don’t see me, particularly toward the very end. BTW Here are my original video & audio recordings (excuse the phone & doorbell in the audio, I didn’t hear them during playback as I had the backing track enabled which masked them out)
Anyway, related to this, is another video I ended up doing for Silverwolfpet. I had been going to bed the same day I recorded the above video but checked the TTG forum one last time (1am) and so a message from SWP asking if I could step in at the last moment for someone else. It was supposed to be hush hush but could I record some lines and actions. Having enjoyed the other recording I accepted and got my lines. I was supposed to be Doc from BTTF and needed to dress in something he might (hence the Hawaiian shirt and dressing gown, come on what else am I going to come up with at 2am).
It was slightly awkward as SWP needed me to yell, so off to the basement I went and recorded my stuff (a few times mind you) and half an hour later synced the video of the iPhone 4 (recorded of the front cam so I could see what the heck I was doing) and uploaded it for SWP.
You’ll have to excuse the dreadful Doc Brown impression, give me a break it was 2 in the morning and I didn’t think to check YouTube for a BTTF clip with Doc Brown
Those that know me, know I have a thing for Film & TV scores and I have done since I was a child (in part thanks to the music of Tom & Jerry cartoons, Looney Tunes cartoons and the tapes of Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Ghostbusters that I got from my dad).
Of late most of the scores I have been buying have been expanded re-issues of old scores (like Star Trek 2, 3 & 5, Batman, Batman Returns, The Edge & Home Alone) and premiere releases of classic scores (Back to the Future, Amazing Stories, Black Sunday), very little though has been recent stuff (though I have a couple of things in my Amazon basket from this last year).
One exception was the CD set by LaLaLand Records of Bear McCreary’s score to the first season of Human Target. I bought it based on my enjoyment of his Battlestar Galactica scores, I thought what the heck I’d take a chance.
Turns out it was well worth it, there is some great if not fantastic music. For instance Baptiste, Tango Fight (both CD 2), Theme from Human Target (Long version – CD 1), The New Christopher Chance (CD2). You can check out some of Bear’s favourite music from the show over on his blog.
Check out the samples for the score over at Bear’s blog. Its highly recommended and a steal at $24.95 for 3 CD’s.
Now as an aside, I’ve since started watching the show based on the strength of the music. Season 1 was very enjoyable, the interplay between the 3 leads (Chance, Winston, Guerrero) is fun and the action was generally superb.
Unfortunately the second season brought in a number of changes in an attempt to draw in new viewers and appeal to a wider audience (say, I dunno, women) and save money. Gone are many of the fun fight sequences, replaced with more “drama” and interplay with 2 new characters (both women, a young sassy lass [Ames] and a rich business woman who is now Chance’s partner [Ilsa]) who don’t really add much and indeed both are kinda annoying (Ilsa who week in & week out complains about the method’s Chance and his team employ, after 7 episodes this hasn’t improved much with her going to the State Department after someone is kidnapped and then tries to get her private jet turned around in the air) even if I like the actresses. Also gone is some of the magic between the original 3 leads, with Guerrero seeming to became a shadow of his season 1 self. One other change was the main producer (indeed creator) of the show stepping back and someone new coming in in charge.
The most annoying change of the 2nd season was not asking Bear to come back and score the show. In an effort to save money (as having a new orchestral score each episode is expensive) they decide to go with a new composer (Tim Jones) who has done the music for the last 4 years of Chuck.
Now his music there has been quite serviceable and I’d quite like a CD of it, there are some nice themes but his music for Human Target has been lacklustre at best. At times it can best be described as passable, the rest of the time it is just
His new theme for the show is however dreadful. It starts out as a distance relative to Bear’s season 1 theme and then after about 15 seconds it descends into noise. Gone is the unique identity that Bear gave the show and leaves you with a theme that is both very generic and doesn’t make you want to watch the show.
Oh yeah, one other thing I didn’t like about Season 2′s new direction, dropping the plot point that was setup at the end of season 1 where Winston had been captured and The Old Man was going to help Chance to rescue him. I don’t particularly have a problem with how Winston was saved (if yes a little quickly at the beginning of the ep) but I do feel a little short changed.
[Edit]
Though of a couple of other things that bug me about the second season, for instance the new high tech computer equipment provide by Ilsa like the funky computer table.
Ep 8 of S2 was written by the creator of the show but still doesn’t help (Ilsa “oh my god your stealing from him”), if Ilsa & Chance end up kissing by the end of the episode I’ll be very disappointed.
Btw the shake up of the show means it has both more a Leaverge and a Chuck feel to the show.
I’ve had a few questions asking how Mareike is and I promised an update. I figured this blog post would be best to get the general information out
Mareike herself is fine though slightly more clingy to mummy than normal, in part because she got to spent a fair chunk of 2 days with just mummy.
The prognosis so far is that she possibly has “Focal Epilepsy” which is a partial form of epilepsy. On the Wednesday Mareike had an EEG done where she was supposed to be being active and puffing lots, in part to try and trigger what might have happened.
When they looked at the results later they noticed some odd signals in her right occipital lobe. This coupled with a number of similar ish incidents over a year ago (some of you may remember my panicked Tweets/Facebook updates when she was between 1.5 & 2.5yo) and a couple of video clips of her being quite vacant and out of character (again from that time period) they are going to investigate further.
On Tuesday they will be doing an MRI scan, for which she will be getting a general anaesthetic, to see if they can see anything in there that might be a cause or trigger. She will then go see a Doctor a few weeks later for another EEG (about an hour) where they will repeat the under strain test and we will can discuss where we will go forward in terms of monitoring / treatment.
For now they are happy for her to carry on as normal, though maybe taking it slightly easier and we should keep an eye out for any unusual behaviour (like vacantness).
I won’t speak for Bob but I’m happy with how things are at the moment, we know there is something to watch for and there are steps being taken to investigate further. The care at Mariahilf in Hamburg) was great, as were the ambulance drivers who took us there as they waited for me to get to the Kindergarten to go with Mareike to the hospital.
Plus side for Mareike out of all of this, other than the extra time with just mummy, was that the ambulance staff gave her a rather cute & cuddly teddybear.
