In advocacy of letter-writing

Dear friends and other members of the world wide web (with a title like this, did you expect anything but a letter format? I get it, it's cliché, but let me just have this ONE thing. And dirigibles.),

The written word is a beautiful thing.

That said, I'm often torn on the concept of Penmanship. See I have none to speak of. Maybe some day I'll hire a scribe for these sorts of things or a less editorialized version of Rita Skeeter's Quick Quotes Quill will be released. Until then, short of forcing myself to practice perfect penmanship perpetually, I will be just like every other doctor or doctor-in-training, compensating for my bad handwriting by entering a noble profession. It's all a scam ...

Anyways, penmanship is an art that I don't expect to master in my lifetime. However, for my purposes, penmanship is simply a means to an end. In fact, I often find that I intentionally write letters on yellow legal pads and other such blasé media for writing because it puts an emphasis on content. In some ways, this is the same excuse as someone who says they intentionally dress poorly or don't take care of themselves because they believe that people should value their content over their appearances. However, my hope in the past is that it's a somewhat endearing writing medium because I write all my notes on legal pads (though recently I have, unhappily, used hole-punched, lined paper because I haven't seen a legal pad in a store in England yet ...). That said, at some point, that plainness must either find a more defined purpose, or go in the way of a slightly more attractive and substantial paper-type.

This seems to be a swing in the opposite direction after the penmanship and paper quality, but I actually do care about the content of what I write and how I choose to say it. I'd like to think that the inadequate pencraft and homely stationary in many ways help me find a flow of consciousness with which to write. At times I've been able to write a dozen or more pages full of what I hope to be a thoughtful and amusing one-sided dialogue and found that it not only helped me communicate better with the objects of my dirigible-deported dispatch (ok, maybe I'm dreaming about the zeppelin), but it also allowed me the rare opportunity to develop thoughts and ideas that take time to express to someone who you can't see or talk to very frequently. To be honest, I'll probably write mail occasionally to people who I see fairly often just because I romanticize the idea of the post and I believe that there is something meaningful, especially in the information era, to getting a letter.

When you think about the concept, it's rather elegant and personal- you're receiving the only copy. Just like an intimate conversation, you have someone's attention and have the opportunity to give them an uninterrupted glimpse into your state of mind. I'm not advocating overwhelming the letter-receiver with thought, emotions, ideas and opinions, but instead taking the now-uncommon opportunity to share some thoughts, uninterrupted, and then waiting for your epistoler to respond. One could call it quid pro quo, but that would quickly lose the spirit of the activity.

I could very easily sing the praises of letter-writing all day and night (which I'm kind of taking up to do this write now), but at some point I have to point out that the experience is nothing if not cathartic. And mildly addictive. Once you get your mind going with thoughts and ideas, it's often easy to keep writing and sharing and clearing of your mind of your thoughts until it wander as if you were out on a run or meditating. Even if you don't have one specific object of your affections that you're writing to, write to your best friends. Or the ones you've lost touch with. Or your family, old professors, politicians, public servants, old pen-pals ... Or simply write something simple to someone you wish to get to know better. Don't just wait for May 21st either (National Letter-Writing Day in Britain ...)!

My over-simplified, but strong advise is just pick up a pen and paper and start writing until you feel like stopping. Then come back a day or two later and write more and with each successive day, write until you feel like you're happy with your letter or letters. As I mentioned a while back, even simple paper and average penmanship will do just fine. I do advise against using a computer - let your hand feel the strain from chasing a train of thought. Au naturale.

The more you do it, the more you'll branch out. I wrote a letter on a piece of music once to one of my best friends, Issie, who's currently in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. I've written letters to people in the blank pages at the back of a book too. I've written on napkins and the backs of fliers and whatever else I had on hand when I felt motivated to write to someone. I (thankfully) haven't tried writing any poetry (I'm a dreadful poet), but that's always an option too. Or dig up an old photo and include it with your letter. Especially if said photo involves you and your correspondant on or in the vicinity of a dirigible.

If you're like a certain Melvillian scrivener who'd "prefer not to" then I'd only like to point out that you're missing a golden opportunity (Yes I'm aware that I just butchered Melville's short story for no apparent reason, though I'd like to point out that Bartleby's stubborness is a clear attempt to exert free will in a world with no actual free will, and he wastes away his life trying to prove a point (but more on that at a later date (woo nested parenthetical remarks)); as another side-bar in this side-bar-less blog, Melvillian seems a lot like Mel-villain ... just an observation). Anyways, I'll quit beating this horse (I swear he's not dead yet).

If you're still reading this then you know that this has gone on long enough. This isn't an advice column, I'm not a qualified advisor and outside of whiskey, directions and medicine (in a few years), my advice and opinions are probably suspect, at best. Or at least off the beaten path. I hope you've enjoyed this ode to letter-writing (one might even go so far as to call it an Elegy). I hope this finds you well.

Warm Regards,

Amar Kelkar

PS - Postscripts are always a good idea!

PS^2 - And an excellent location for non sequiturs.

PS^3 - And general frivolity.

PS^4 - However, I wouldn't recommend starting an entirely new train of thought in the post-scripts. There's always future letters ... or other letters to include in the same parcel.

PS^5 - I did forget to mention that everybody loves getting mail.

Rediscovering Oz ...

There are many times when I feel like I either didn't have many interests as a child, or my terrible memory/short attention span has caused me to lose touch with those many interests (unlike many of my "nerdier" friends who have retained loves like legos, pokemon, collecting hobbies, reading, writing, video games, movies, etc.), so whenever I come back into contact with one of my old loves, I think it's only fair (and probably wise) to catalogue it for myself to remember later in life.

As the title of this blog may give it away, today's thoughts might be on or related to L. Frank Baum's books on the Land of Oz. While I don't remember all the characters, this is a throwback to my days loving fantasy novels and Dorothy and the other character's adventures in Oz reminded me a great deal of the Narnia books (another childhood love) because their fantasy worlds became more of the focus than the characters who came and went. Just like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie did not appear in all the Narnia stories, neither did our beloved Dorothy. The biggest difference between the two, I find, is that the idea of escaping to another world was much more metaphysical concept in the Narnia books than in the Oz books. Dorothy physically moves her aunt and uncle to Oz at one point in the stories, something that would not have been possible within the Narnian tales because it was truly an imaginary world (filled with Christian allusions).

Yes, the Oz stories held a special place in my heart - spending a great deal of time reading them in our newly constructed elementary school library. Fortunately they had all of Baum's book in stock, but when I wanted more, I was able to utilize the public library to read the slightly less canonical stories written by Baum's son and other writers. The stories themselves, were often quite simplistic, but some of the ideas used were and are quite fascinating and I still reference them from time to time. The most significant of these was Glinda's "Great Book of Records" which records every event in history exactly when it happens.

Glinda's "Great Book of Records" was a source of much internal struggle in my younger days because it was apparently quite a complex and paradoxical concept to process. My first issue was that there is a fine line between recording history as it happens and taking away autonomy, as the book could be consulted, directly tying events and acts to their supposed consequences. Then there was this eerie Big Brother-ish feeling that it gave off since the "good" witch Glinda was always watching. It's like CCTV in Britain ... it's everywhere and no one knows whether anyone will care to notice what they did. It was the ultimate breach of privacy, not that I was so offended by sacrificing liberties for safety, but that there was no control over it and if my memory serves correctly, it was a plot device on at least one occasion where it was used for less-than-noble purposes. Beyond the moral questions, there were also the temporal questions such as how does it record acts in progress and how does it decide the order of the infinite number of events taking place simultaneously? There were also basic logic questions like - how does one find anything when there are an infinite number of a events taking place at any instant and an infinite number of instances over the course of history (naturally, a magical search function might have come in handy ...)? Then there were the pesky paradoxical questions, such as whether the Great Book of Records recorded itself recording history, which was itself an event occurring! There were hundreds of questions that developed from this supposedly simple and usually insignificant plot device that led me to believe (possibly my own delusion of grandeur) that Baum's books were more intelligent and philosophical than they let on. While I wouldn't call all of his characters deep or his world perfect in any way, he did bring up a lot of interesting questions by the way he introduced unusual concepts.

I cannot, however, talk about Baum's books without touching on the one vision he is most praised for: the character Tik-Tok. Tik-Tok is widely considered to be the first literary example of a robot (though the term "robot" was non-existent in 1907 when he was conjured by Mr. Baum)! Like his contemporaries Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, he was intentionally or unintentionally introducing concepts that would later become extremely relevant and influence how the general populous envisioned robots, space ships, submarines and other staples of fantasy and science fiction to this day. It's interesting because in Baum's fantastical world where men made of straw and tin protected wayward Kansas girls and animals spoke and were educated, the concept of a talking machine (who looks like a combination of a boiler, a clock and a wind-up toy) seemed to fit right in.

It was probably just an artifact of a creative mind and one could leave it like that, except that Baum, for one reason or another, made Tik-Tok quite different than the other magically anthropomorphic, intelligent and conversational beings and creatures. Tik-Tok is repeatedly introduced as a non-living, emotionless machine who considers himself subservient to Dorothy. Part of this could be contributed to an industrial age attitude towards machines, but from my perspective as a child, and even to this day, it made Tik-Tok the most pitiable character in all the books. Having done nothing wrong except to be a machine instead of an animal, he was never truly able to develop, making him stagnant and timeless - a common theme in the world of Oz. In a world where lost girls could become heroes, monkeys could fly and magic was quite real, Tik-Tok was juxtaposed as a neglected, unchanging character.

This brings me back to the Great Book of Records because one of the questions I did not posit before was what qualified as an event that could go on the "record?" Were thoughts events? If one was to try and answer these questions, you could look at the most likely answers to figure out what was really at work. Given the somewhat paradoxical nature of the Book, maybe it only recorded the actions of sentient beings (since trees blowing in the wind might take too much space and time in a record aimed at helping the country's leadership to solve problems). However, one could argue that parameter was related to every character in the books, except Tik-Tok since he neither felt emotions, nor fear and he was "programmed" to follow certain cues.

Disregarding my liberal interpretation of the Book's capabilities, Mr. Baum seems to be introducing the robot as an outsider, a tool and puts on display man's mastery of machines (in the form of Tik-Tok's subservience). While this entry has gotten a little carried away, I did want to express the keen appreciation I had and still have for Mr. Baum's books. His creation of Tik-Tok and the Great Book of Records gave me a great deal to question and spurred my interest in his books and the fantastical as a kid.

'A Little in the Middle' and advice on layered drinks

The layered drink seen here is the eponymous 'A Little in the Middle' which is layered from top to bottom:

- Smirnoff Green Apple Vodka

- Chambord (a dark raspberry liqueur)

- Amaretto (an almond liqueur)

(Drink recipe was invented by one Ariel Ranieri)

By heating up the Green Apple Vodka, we were able to successfully light this drink on fire!

In general, we had great success experimenting with layered drinks (making sure to check the densities of the alcohols involved to ensure that there was enough of a difference to maintain separate layers.

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Bloom, left to right: Amar Kelkar & Ariel Ranieri)

Given the lovely ring formation and color scheme, this next drink was named "Drops of Jupiter." It may be my favorite one of the whole lot that we mixed (top to bottom):

Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)

Pimms (...)

Orange Juice

Kahlua (Coffee)

Amaretto

General advice for inventing/mixing layered drinks and shooters:

1) Make them in a shot glass, or maybe an Old Fashioned Glass. I've seen some great ones in Sundae dishes, but keep in mind that you're hopefully trying to give them a taste of something delicious and mixing in smaller quantities allows your guests to taste something unusual, which also happens to be an attractive drink that you've concocted, so embrace minimalism. If they want more, you can show off your bartending skills by mixing them more of the same or something new!

2) Pour your shooter slowly, adding additional layers by pouring onto the back-side of a spoon that has its tip touching the wall of your serving apparatus (glass). If you pour too quickly, the layers could mix, ruining your layered design. It'll probably be pretty, but the symmetry of layers in a drink is quite lovely and unusual and you can always introduce some circular motion to your glass later on to watch the layers collapse if you so desire.

3) Utilize a list of liquor densities to determine how to organize the layers. In general, a heavy base, such as Amaretto is a personal favorite, but more generally, try to keep the liquors selected at distinct densities. I'm being intentionally vague because I haven't had any problems yet, but I've kept the densities around .01 g/ml apart. This site was recommended to me and has served me well thus far: http://www.goodcocktails.com/bartending/specific_gravity.php

4) Get creative. Seriously! If you have something cool in mind, try it out. If you want to make a layered drink with Mango Lassi, Crème de Menthe, Parrot Bay Mango Rum and Lime Juice (or Lime Vodka), you should do it! (Incidentally, I'm still waiting for my chance to try making the aforementioned layered drink. Let me know how it is if you try it!

Another fancy dinner ...

So I've actually had the opportunity of preparing two large, multi-course dinners in the last month, but I've posted neither menu, so I'd like to offer a half-fix - the menu for a dinner that I prepared with my dear friend and chef-collaborator Ariel. The credit for the menu is about 50-50 since we each came up with a few dishes and modified each others recipes.

PS The secret ingredients are swing dancing, good company, good music and a lightning storm.

Serrano Hoppers:

Cooked Shrimp

Serrano Peppers

Sharp White Cheddar

Pre-made Wonton Wraps

Instructions

Take the cooked shrimp, remove the tails and chop them up into thin circular slices. Then take the serrano peppers, remove the stems and chop them into thin circular slices. Then take a block of sharp white cheddar and chop it into thin rectangular slices (approximately 1x1.5cm). Using prepared wonton wraps (due to preparation time, we decided to use pre-made wonton wraps, but they're fairly easy to make.

Dip (for Serrano Hoppers):

Tomato

Cilantro

Lemon

Thyme

Cumin

Instructions:

Put the whole tomatoes in boiling water and cook them until the skin begins to separate from the fruit and then remove and hand-peel the tomatoes once they've cooled. Chop cilantro and add freshly squeezed lemon juice, thyme and cumin to taste.

Sweet Potato Dumplings:

Sweet Potato

Olive oil

Butter

Nutmeg

All-purpose flour

Eggs

Spearmint

Instructions:

Preset the oven to 350 degrees and then rub the sweet potatoes with olive oil and bake them for an hour. While the potatoes are baking, make a simple dough mixing all-purpose flour and water, starting with as little water as possible and adding more as needed until the dough sticks together and can be kneaded but not too wet and sticky. Pull off small pieces of the dough and form balls of about 1-inch in diameter. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough as thin as possible into sheets and then set them to dry a little. Remove the potatoes, peel and mash them. If the potatoes aren't mashing well, add some butter and put the mashed potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes to soften them further. Once the potatoes are properly mashed, add enough sweet potato to fill each piece of dough (make sure not to over fill) and then wrap the dumplings. Using some water, seal the dumpling shut and then glaze them with a mixture of beaten eggs and spearmint. Put them on a tray and bake them for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Try to pull out the dumplings before the dough has hardened too much so they become like a sweet and savory bite-sized appetizer.

Salad:

Spinach Leaves

Dried Cranberries

Dried Apricot

Unseasoned Goat Cheese

Leek

Salted Almonds

Instructions:

Mix Spinach leaves, goat cheese (unseasoned), dried cranberries, dried apricot , leek and chopped almonds so that the cheese gets well mixed. Then toss the salad with the honey mustard dressing.

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing:

Honey

Dijon Mustard

Rice Wine Vinegar

Instructions:

Mix a ratio of 5:3:2 of Honey to Dijon Mustard to Rice Wine Vinegar for as much dressing as you need. I'd recommend mixing the honey and rice wine vinegar using a fork and then slowly add in the mustard and keep mixing. Thanks to Alton Brown and the Food Network website for this recipe and ratio.

Baked Chicken with a Poblano Pesto:

4 breasts of chicken

2-3 poblano peppers

Dried or Fresh Basil

Pine Nuts

Olive Oil

Cilantro

Instructions:

Take the breasts of chicken and rub them lightly with olive oil and put them on a sheet to bake for about 15 minutes on each side at 350 degrees (or until the outside has turned white but doesn't start browning). Meanwhile, using a food processor or blender, chop and add in basil, pine nuts, cilantro and olive oil to taste for a pesto to your liking. Then add chopped poblano peppers to your liking (based on the level of spiciness you'd like). I prefer 1 pepper for about 1 cup of pesto. During all this mixing, don't forget to add olive oil as needed to avoid clumping and per your preference. Using some of the pesto, rub each breast with the pesto and then bake each side for 5 to 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Slice the chicken and serve it on a platter or in a bowl with the remaining pesto poured over the chicken.

Wild Rice with Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, Leeks, Squash and Cilantro:

Wild rice

Butternut Squash

Olive Oil

Leeks

Cilantro

Chives

Sweet Potato

Instructions:

Using a rice cooker, book about 2 cups of rice wild rice. This can take about 45 minutes, but make sure not to overcook the rice (allow it to be slightly chewy). While that's cooking, chop the butternut squash into cubes and rub those cubes with light olive oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Set them to bake on a sheet at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. Using some olive oil, sauté some chopped leeks, chives and cilantro. If you have any leftover sweet potato from the dumplings (above) you can use it here too. Taking all the prepared parts, mix and toss the rice, squash, sweet potato and cilantro, leek and chive mixture. Recipe modified from Nancy Oakes, Pamela Mazzolo and Bon Appétit (and Epicurious.com)

Coconut Couscous:

Israeli Couscous

Coconut milk

Instructions:

Following the directions of the specific couscous you purchase, add the suggested amount of water and then add half to a full can of coconut milk (depending on how much coconut flavor and smell you'd like). Stir and cook until the mixture absorbs the water.

Crepes with Raspberry Sorbet and Dark Chocolate:

Flour

Salt

Sugar

Grated Ginger

Raspberry Sorbet

50% Dark Chocolate

Instructions:

Mix a cup of flour and 2 eggs in a bowl and slowly add in 1/2 a cup of milk and 1/2 a cup of water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of butter and 3-4 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger into the mixture and stir. In a frying pan, melt some butter and make crepes using 1/4 cup of batter per crepe (this should yield about 8 crepes per batch). After make the crepes, serve them with raspberry sorbet and grated dark chocolate. Recipe modified from JENNYC819 at AllRecipes.com.

After-Dinner Shooter (Dark Chocolate Surprise!):

Amoretto

Grand Marnier

50% Dark Chocolate

Instructions:

Put a small chunk of dark chocolate at the bottom of a shot glass. Fill the shot glass half way with Amoretto. Using a spoon, hold the concave side over the shot glass and touch it to the side of the shot glass such that the spoon covers the mouth of the glass. Slowly pour Grand Marnier onto the spoon such that it drizzles slowly on top of the Amoretto, forming a layered drink.

Anthology of Interest I: Geordie History and the faux-faux-Football

In the inaugural edition of Anthology of Interest, my two fantasy football (nerd alert) teams are called the "Geordie Billycocks" and the "Pons Aelius Sharkpies" ...

Incidentally, those are both references to Newcastle, UK as the people of Newcastle are known as Geordies (and the 'dialect' of English that they speak is also called Geordie) apparently because during an attempted takeover by the Scots, the people held off an attack and legend has it that some bloke chose to make their warcry "We're Geordies!" or something to that effect as a means of swearing fealty to King George, the Protestant King. Pons Aelius is actually the name of the Roman settlement that was the precursor to Newcastle, the capital of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The team mascots "Billycocks" and "Sharkpies" also reference elements of the Newcastle culture. "Billycock" hats (also known as Bowler hats) were and still are popular in the region. The Newcastle football team, Newcastle United is often referred to as the "Magpies" in reference to their jersey colors, and since my second football league is called "Geordie Football Hell" I thought it appropriate to look for an image that would be something to the effect of a zombie magpie. The closest image I found via Google Search was a shark-pidgeon, which I dubbed a Sharkpie for my devious purposes ...

In the interest of wrapping things up, this was a thoroughly useless post, but I hope that some Geordie history has been roughly maintained.

Space Ponies and Legos

Just a brief glimpse into my sense of humor - this is something I posted in response to a photo of my friend Charlotte (my swing dancing partner and very dear friend) holding a lego space ship in one hand and a "my little pony" in the other:

"Sir, our squadron is UNDER ATTACK! ... but I've never seen anything like this before ... first of all it has NO pegs in it, so I have no idea how it holds itself together ... we might be dealing with a multi-dimensional being or an alternate type of matter. Either way, that horseshoe shaped hole in the hull of my ship probably means I'm BLOCKed ...

ZOINKS?! IT'S A SPACE PONY?!?!? Oh, we're definited BLOCKed ..."

In case you didn't catch on (yes you, Mr. Seagull), "BLOCKed" is my own lego euphemism for "boned", "screwed" or something to that effect.

The whims of flies ...

First of all, I never noticed that whims and whimsical are derived from the same root word before (I'll have to OED that tomorrow) until I was filling in the title of this post ... this has very little to do with the other whimsical notions that I feel the need to post about ... I suppose this itself is a whimsical thought, a random rambling, but I digress ...

As I was leaving work around midnight an odd thought crossed my mind - my entire work schedule revolves around the life cycles of flies (common pests for most people, and probably even more so for fly technicians) and more importantly (and oddly) my labor schedule is most drastically affected by the age of consent for flies. It's known in Drosophila melanogaster that 3-4 hours is a "safe" amount of time to assume that females have retained their virginity. That would make some age around 5-6 hours old the "age of consent" at which point the female flies might have been contaminated with the sperm of their siblings, fathers, uncles and possibly even males with a 2 generation gap (grandfathers and granduncles). Such is that way of maintaining an fly "line" where inbreeding is unavoidable and in some cases intentional. It's disgusting to think about in a human context, but it allows us, in some cases, to have almost entirely genetically identical siblings, and families, allowing us to collect lots of data about a "single fly" genome.

In my case, I've taken advantage of these breeding capabilities to compare nutrition, enzyme kinetics, innate immunity and chromosomal segregation and will eventually get to perform artificial selection experiments on both individual lines (each line essentially representing 1 fly genome) as well as intentionally crossed lines and population cages (where we have a mixture of crosses of sequenced lines so we know all the possible alleles at all the loci, but any individual fly could have any mixture of said alleles if linkage disequilibrium is low (which it should be in such populations based on how I'll breed them)). In particular the thought of selection population cages where we know all the possible outcomes is fascinating because it allows us to "observe" the process of genome optimization in a population cage where there is theoretically a very low inbreeding coefficient and low LD due to the effective high population size (I could list off a number of other population genetics terms that can more aptly explain the point I'm trying to make, but at some point it wouldn't make a difference to the one seagull reading this post so I won't bother).

Either way, especially in experiments like the population cage selection, I'm subject to the whims of flies (drying out food, age of consent (i.e. female virginity), sticky wings, etc.). It's a damn good time.

Somehow when I thought of "The whims of flies" I imagined it as a metaphor for our own lives, where the people occupying the world around us (known and unknown) are the flies. It's not a complete thought yet (I supposed very few things are), but there's something there. In the end, we all eat, breed and live in our own mess, with very little impact on the flies in the next vial over or the bigger laboratory around us.

Yeah, that sounds kind of corny ... but it's a start, I suppose. I think I'm looking at it too close from the wrong perspective. Anyways, the idea that we live mostly on whims (as opposed to constantly direct and intentional actions) seems on the surface to be very true. While many of our "whims" could be very intentional actions planned and executed by each of our own subconscious, it seems to me that most of our actions are quite arbitrary (e.g. how far to move left or right to avoid colliding with oncoming traffic, when to notice and react to an itch, how much to rotate our heads versus just shifting our eyes). Many of these are trained in behaviors that we have corrected consciously and unconsciously throughout our lives, but that so called "judgment" that enables us to make seemingly arbitrary decisions.

I guess I'm coming at this idea of whims from multiple directions. In one way, I'm saying that whims are mindless, random thoughts. But under the surface, one might argue that there are no such things as true whims. Every seemingly arbitrary behavior is decided by an unfathomably complex algorithm processed by our brains to decide our every action. In many ways, it takes the fun out of the concept of "free will" to say that our every whim, a momentary passing thought that may or may not be put into action in some way, is in fact pre-determined in that instant when a choice much be made (discrete or continuous) by all the events that preceded it.

This idea that all the previous events together combine to make our current decisions is a universal concept. Many literary concepts, such as Glinda's "Great Book of Records" (which I've explained in more detail in a currently unfinished blog post about Oz), which magically lists every event in history as it occurs, utilize this idea that we are the sum of the events of the past to determine what will happen or make sense of current events.

It is in this way ironic that this train of thought leads to pre-determination. In spite of taking the argument that our whims are determined by a gigantic algorithm (rather than a so-far unmentioned "soul"), it seems to me like true free will is unlikely. Obviously, this does not prevent us from retaining apparent free will. That is to say, that since we are not consciously aware of how every circumstance in existence together affects our actions, we can operate under apparent free will to make our conscious minds feel like there is meaning to our actions.

I suppose there are several ideas here that I'd like to write more about in the future, but in regards to how all these ideas apply to "the whims of flies" it becomes more clear to me that the phrase is almost an oxymoron. From everything I've described, flies appear mechanical to us, lacking even the appearance of "whims," and even in supposedly more complex organisms, our "whims" are nothing more than a product of previous events. So to say "the whims of flies" to me is to imply free will (or arbitrary behavior) where there is none.

The future use of such a phrase in my lexicon is still unclear, but at least roughly, "being subjected to the whims of flies" would apparently be to voluntarily or involuntarily forgo your own apparent free will to someone else or even the world itself, all of which also lack true free will. In other words, it means that you are conscious giving up your claim to free will, or in even other words, you're giving up and becoming truly mechanical.

Publicity happenings ...

My favorite quote of the day comes from an article about FlixQ, a video sharing website co-founded by my friend Ryan Peterson that reads: "After about a year of operation, FlixQ hosts several thousand videos, ranging from parades to Cornell Glee Club doings to a cat washing its face" (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-video-site-quality-barrier.html). The website focuses on high resolution video sharing, so it's worth taking a look.

In separate, but also interesting news, the Hangovers tour to the UK in 3 weeks is starting to get some attention: http://cornellclubnyc.com/events/the-cornell-club-welcomes-the-hangovers

I've had kind of a split focus organizing that tour, but it's still coming together with a lot of fun events to look forward to, including a gig for two Cornell alumni societies (Hotel School and Business School) in London (venue TBA). Now if I could just lock down inexpensive transport to Scotland ...

Salmon Tortellini in a Reduced Wild Mushroom Sauce, served with mixed, spiced vegetables

Appetizer

Mixed grilled, spiced vegetables (White/Button Mushrooms, Bell Peppers, Snapped Peas, Green Beans (or French Beans) ==> blackening spices (try a rub), garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, black pepper

Instructions:

Put a few drops of olive oil in the pan and heat. Add the veggies (chopped) with a little big of water as needed. Grill until they release water and then add spices to taste - lots of garlic powder, 1-2 tbsp of the balsamic vingegar and then salt and black pepper. Add some basil if you'd like too.

Spinach Tortellini:

6 cups of wheat flour

6 large eggs

1/2 cup chopped spinach

Water as needed (for moistening)

Salt to taste

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

Instructions:

Add the flour, oregano, and basil to a mixing bowl before mixing and then adding the spinach. Then break and add the eggs, slowly mixing all the ingredients as they're added. If after some time the mixture looks too dry, add water as needed to moisten the dough. Once everything is mixed well, knead the dough ball by hand and then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Afterwards, flatten the dough using either a pasta make or rolling pin dried with a little bit of flour. Using an inverted glass, cut circles in the flattened dough and keep the circles while kneading and flattening the rest of the dough until all of it has been used. Now, see filling recipe below.

Wild Mushroom Sauce:

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig marjoram, plus more for garnish

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp of dried thyme

1/2 pound assorted wild mushrooms (golden chanterelle, shiitake, cremini, oyster, porcini, etc.), trimmed and sliced

1 cup mushroom stock (see below)

1 cup light cream + additional skim milk as needed

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Grated Parmesan (for serving)

Instructions:

In a large saute pan, over high heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute, just until browning begins. Add the marjoram and saute 1 more minute. Add the mushrooms and saute until they begin to brown and release their liquid, after about 5 minutes. Add the mushroom stock and reduce for 5 minutes. Add the cream and reduce about 5 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken. If the reduced solution looks too watery, add some skim milk and reduce it a little more. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Keep simmering until the tortellini is ready.

Mushroom Stock (vegetarian):

1/2 cup of mushroom trimmings

2 cups of water

Salt and Garlic Powder to Taste

Instructions:

Add the water to a pot, put in the mushroom trimmings, salt and garlic powder and stir. Let this slowly boil until it has reduced to about 1 cup of solution. Strain the solution and toss out the trimmings.

Salmon Tortellini filling:

2 pounds of skinned and de-boned salmon filets

2 cups ricotta cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup chopped spinach

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Using a knife, finely chop salmon to the consistency of ground meat. In a food processor, combine remaining ingredients and process completely to a purée consistency. Remove cheese mixture from processor and mix thoroughly by hand with the finely chopped salmon. Set aside in the refrigerator while making the pasta dough.

Generously fill each piece of tortellini. Place filled tortellini into boiling water and cook until ravioli floats to the top.

Drain and serve with the wild mushroom sauce poured over the tortellini. Top it all off with grated parmesan cheese and a sprig of majorum.

Wasted Days ...

The best part of keeping a blog (especially one that no one reads), is that I still feel bad when I think I want to write something down, but don't think I have enough to say at that point to make it worthwhile. It's bizarre, really, but apparently I feel like I'm letting myself down. Oh well ...

Anyways, today was what I'd classify as a productive, wasted day by all accounts. Eating the leftover salmon tortellini stuffing spread on toast 2 nights ago for a late dinner came back to bite me starting yesterday evening and I still went to Whiskey 101 at Stellas (a Whiskey tasting "course" every Tuesday night at my favorite local haunt on College Ave). I then followed that up by eating a big dinner with a slice of deep dish pizza with artichoke hearts, feta cheese and spinach and a less delicious 4th topping of broccoli (it just didn't mesh with the textures and flavors of the rest) with about 1/3rd of a pitcher of Cascazilla beer.

Probably not the best decisions, but it was all in support of local business for what it was worth. The Whiskey 101 tasting this week was hosted by Brian McKenzie of the Finger Lakes Distilling Company, an up-and-coming local distillery about 30 minutes from Ithaca on the east-end of Seneca Lake. He brought an unfinished 1-year-old whiskey which had potential, followed by an off-the-market wheat whiskey, a rye and a bourbon. The McKenzie Rye was by far my favorite, but that's not surprising. The sweet spicy mixture of a good rye, I often liken to a good curry or a sweet chili sauce, depending on the rye. The experience was pretty positive on the whole and my friend Ryan and I make a soft resolution to visit and taste at the distillery at some point. The bar manager Greg, who I've become friends with through these tastings, was also quite pleased. As a grad student in the Plant Sciences department, he seems to have a good rapport with the lab-types who often frequent the bar.

Regardless, it left me exhausted and still suffering from what was probably mild food poisoning when I woke up this morning. Instead of forcing myself to work, since my car was up on the Hill, I stayed in bed since it was a balmy -5 when I woke up at 6:45am. The result was that I tried to force myself back to to sleep until I woke up at 10:00am and saw my research professor's email about a 10:00am meeting to discuss the usage of our fresh off the sequencers genomic data for some D. melanogaster lines that I have been managing. Since I was still feeling ill, I didn't bother even trying to shower and race to campus (showing up late to the meeting might have just been awkward) so I just gave up and made it up in time to meet with my sister for lunch at 12pm where we discussed her interview for her two interviews this week - at Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup. After that I met with my housemate April to go over her speech for VP of the Cornell Chorus, which just inspired me to get back into Glee Club work.

First I started by remembering my desire to commission a "Chariot" song for the Glee Club. A Chariot song is a song sung at Glee Club "Chariot Nights" on Wednesday nights after 7:30-9:30pm rehearsals. The name Chariot is a reference to a bar called the Chariot that used to allow the Glee Club to occupy the space every Wednesday, located at the T-intersection of Eddy Street and Dryden Road. The events are a quintessential part of the Glee Club experience, in my opinion, and different iterations of the weekly tradition have gone back decades in CUGC history. At the event, we usually sing classic Glee Club songs, traditional Cornell songs, but also 3 "Chariot Songs" which are affectionately called "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "The Freshmen Up at Yale" and "Fireman." The former two make fun of the other Ivies, while the latter is a drawn out innuendo to make fun of a Glee Clubber who has a sister. For a few years that has been me (on and off) since my sister has been at Cornell for the past 2.5 years including a semester in the Chorus. While these songs usually cross a line in vulgarity, the spirit of them is a raucous college spirit that I'd love to capture in a new song. My thought is that it is definitely time for such an event, so I contacted the current Assistant Director of the Glee Club, Jesse Jones - a graduate student in music composition at Cornell University to see if he'd be interested. I'm waiting to hear on that ...

But that was just the beginning. I then drew out a long e-mail with my plans for the use of the photos and musical recordings of the Glee Club to put on the website and make available to our alumni. I've started getting some positive responses from the several alumni I emailed about the topic, so hopefully that will get going. For now I've got to make a proper photo album for the tour.

I then took care of some Hangovers tour things - I've still got to send out an $11,000 check to American Airlines for our flights and then pay for a few things in the UK, but things are shaping up well.

I contacted my old HS, New Trier to ask about a concert there for the Glee Club next January and also discovered something cool - my old newspaper sponsor, Tim Dohrer, had become Principal, which I suppose could help our cause for bringing the CUGC to New Trier - one of my many unrealized goals for the CUGC so far.

I also sent a long e-mail about Glee Club tour to John Nicolls, a particularly stern power-alumnus who I've had an up-and-down relationship with, depending on the context (Glee Club vs. Hangovers). I expressed a pretty strong interest in helping with the Midwestern Tour next year and cited my outreach to New Trier, as well as my outreach to the CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) with the hopes of getting a rental rate. The rate itself was too high and the 2000+ seats too large, but the idea of going for a high-profile venue was made clear and I also apologized again on behalf for the Hangovers - something I had little to do with, but was being roped into by affiliation. Despite the significant improvement, the negative sides of being the Hangovers have been made clear to me again (then again I've enjoyed many of the benefits, so I can't complain too much).

After that, I finally was contacted by the *new* Outreach Coordinator for the IHA who contacted me back about organizing fundraising for their organization, after the old outreach coordinator Betsye had been somewhat difficult to meet with. And we may have now just set a meeting time.

All in all, a productive day out of a wasted one, but I should be careful with old fish, even old fish I've made ... even if it was part of a delicious Salmon Tortellini with a Wild Mushroom Sauce, served with mixed, spiced vegetables. I'll put up a recipe for that at some point ...

[And look at that, not such a short post after all]

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream from Go Fish in Napa Valley

When I organized the Cornell University Glee Club's Wine Tour in Napa Valley, we ate at a restaurant called Go Fish. Great food, but more importantly, the Milk Chocolate Ice Cream was divine. Honestly, this is some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I e-mailed the owner who I had been in touch with and she convinced the chef to give me the recipe. I highly recommend it as well as the restaurant Go Fish if you are ever in Napa Valley, CA. I saw it rated as the top fish restaurant in the area.

Without further ado:

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream- 1qt

230g Milk Chocolate

1.5C Heavy Cream

1.5C Whole Milk

150g Sugar

Pinch of Salt

4 Egg yolks

2t Brandy

Combine milk chocolate and cream in bowl set over simmering water. Stir until melted, then pour into container and set a strainer over top.

Warm milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.

In a separate bowl, whisk yolks until combined. Temper with warm milk, then pour back into saucepan.

Stir constantly over medium heat until nappe (170 degrees).

Pour through strainer into chocolate. Add brandy. Stir to combine then chill.