Saturday, September 26, 2009

Recipe Time Again - Pasta with Olive / Artichoke Tapenade and Roasted Vegetables

As you may have figured out by now I love to cook. Lately I've been working on expanding my repertoire of Mediterranean dishes, particularly dishes inspired by Greek ingredients. This latest dish is a perfect example.

I am providing a vegetarian option this time. If you feel a need to add meat to it just take a small skinless, boneless chicken breast, rub it with salt, cook on a grill brushed lightly with olive oil and then slice and serve on top of dish.

Pasta with Roasted Vegetables in a Olive and Artichoke Tapenade:

Ingredients:

1 large zuchini
1 large or 2 small red onions
1 sweet red pepper
2 portabello mushrooms
40 kalamata olives
2 whole artichoke hearts
4 tbsp of capers
Olive Oil
Red wine
1 tsp lemon juice
salt
pepper

Tapenade:

Halve the olives and remove the seeds.
Wash capers, separate 2 tbsp
combine olives, 2 tbsp of capers, artichoke hearts, lemon juice and 5 tbsp of olive oil, season with black pepper only (result will be quite salty, no need to add salt to this part) in a hand chopper / food processor, chop until all ingredients reduced to a coarse paste. Set aside.

Roasted vegetables:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut zuchini and red pepper into pieces between 1/2 the size of thumb and size of thumb. If using small onions cut into 8 pieces each, if using a single large onion more cuts may be necessary.
Combine in a casserole dish.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle with equal measures of olive oil and red wine.
Toss
Roast for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, baste, roast 20 minutes more.

Final dish:

Cook spaghetti noodles as needed.
Cut portabello mushroom caps into 1 inch cubes. Combine in a large frying pan or a wok with roasted vegetables. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
Remove cover, add tapenade, stir and cover again, cook for additional 5 minutes.
Add reserved 2 tbsp of capers, stir and cook 30 seconds.
Serve immediately as is, with chicken breast or topped with parmesan, feta or ricotta cheese.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Carlos Santana Update

One little tidbit I only found out after publishing my blog yesterday:

Carlos Sanatana has some history of involvement with cults.

Now, of course, he got out - broke off contact with Chinmoy but one can't help but noting the influence that Chinmoy's theology seems to retain on the theology of Architects of a New Dawn.

Again, nothing to conclusively state that Santana is trying to start a religion with him at the centre but, again, a somewhat disturbing indicator.

Moving on to other topics;

I'm at a bit of a loss for something to read. I finished with the Simon R. Green novel I was reading before a while ago and have been picking half-heartedly through Rob Roy ever since. Thing is that Rob Roy is more research read than it is read for pleasure and my usual light read authors, Stephen King, Steven Brust and Jim Butcher haven't produced anything new in a while that I haven't already read. Barring magazine releases this leaves me at a bit of a loss. I wonder if anybody in my readership would like to recommend a book to me. Leave me comments.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Possible Cult Warning!

I recently had a group brought to my attention. This group, called "Architects of a New Dawn" is purportedly a social networking site founded by Carlos Santana which claims the mission statement of "creating a new global network, driven by extraordinary music and powerful media content. It is designed to engage people of all walks of life to work together to create positive change in the global community where love can replace fear and where peace can replace conflict."

Sounds like huggy hippy stuff right?

Well some warning bells go off.

To start with let's look at this article in Rolling Stone Magazine.

In it Santana says "I want the audience to be reminded that before they had all this stuff, this DNA and flesh and bones, they were made out of light."

Now one of his band members brushes this odd comment off, stating that Mr. Santana tends to "speak in metaphor" however the comment seems less metaphoric when you consider that the 62 year old guitarist says he plans to become a minister when he turns 67 and then says he is disaffected by the feelings of sexual guilt he thinks came from his Roman Catholic upbringing.

He never mentions what faith he intends to be a minister in... more on that later.

In this video Santana describes Architects of a new dawn in terms of faith and invites people to "create a new substance, a new reality, a new perception for this planet".

In this video he talks about a "sense of divine purpose" and states he plans to launch a 24 hour TV channel as the ultimate goal of Architects of a new dawn.

Within Architects of a new dawn you find an acceptance of several of the dumber and more dangerous new age beliefs, such as the belief that the world will end in 2012.

Finally, at this page, we see a huge countdown clock calling for all the "architects" to participate in a daily "global prayer for peace".

Ok, so there is the raw data. So the question becomes why do these things concern me, why do they make me say "this could be a potential cult"?

Well, let's look at the defining characteristics for a cult:

1) A cult is a religion.

With all the talk of new realities and divine purpose it certainly looks like Mr. "I want to be a minister in 5 years" Santana is trying to start a religion.

2) A cult has a charismatic leader.

Santana is unquestionably charismatic.

3) A cult may attempt to impose undue control over the daily activities of its' members.

Daily synchronized prayer clock. Doesn't matter where you are in the world or what else you are doing it's time to go pray for peace.

4) A cult may make undue monetary demands on its' members

Haven't seen evidence of that yet but I somehow doubt that record sales for Supernatural, Santana's last hit record (recorded before a California divorce) will be sufficient to start his peace and love TV network.

5) A cult may have a syncretic theology.

New age star-body stuff.
Christianity sans-sexual guilt.
"ZOMG teh world iz endingz on 2012" Terrence McKenna bad-trip bollocks.

Yeah, I think that is pretty syncretic.

Lots of cults preyed on hippies. Now the hippies are all older baby-boomers and have much more money than they did in the time of Chandra Mohan Jain, they are perfectly primed for a net-savvy, would-be cleric to come and take their money for his prostelytizing TV channel.

Is "Architects of a New Dawn" a cult? The jury is still out. But there is certainly cause for caution and concern.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Been Lettin' Things Slide

I haven't been feeling well lately. I caught a cold which turned into Laryngitis which turned into a lingering cough which just recently began to subside. Between feeling ill and finishing draft 1 copy editing I haven't even been twittering, let alone actually sitting down to write a blog entry. Hopefully that's in the past.

This summer has been marked by injuries for me. Of course I was almost run over by an SUV and bunged up my knee in the process, I think I mentioned that some time ago, but I also fell down a flight of stairs at my friend's place in Toronto. Fortunately I am on the mend and my maligned left leg has regained enough stability that I have started doing Qigong again.

Hold the boat you say, Skeptical Simon, who maligns spiritualism does Qigong?!?

Ok, well let me explain, I practice a form of Qigong called Iron Thread which combines breath control with isodynamic exercise. It is a good workout with meditative qualities that are beneficial. It does, however, involve low stances and puts a fair amount of pressure on the knees and ankles, the two things I injured.

Getting back to the point where I could comfortably do this again was a watermark for my recovery.

Turning to other things, as I alluded to previously I have finished copy editing draft 1 of my novel. Another of my beta-readers has volume 1 while Pam finishes up on volume 2. Once I get Volume 1 back from my beta-reader I will be getting to work on inputting the changes and incorporating beta-reader commentary into the master copy of the book. Then it'll be time to print draft 2 and pass it around to more of my beta-readers.

My planned writer's group seems to be coming to fruition. I have now got 3 serious responses to my adverts. I'm working on trying to arrange a time for the four of us to meet and hash out the structure. I'm very excited. If you are in the London, Canada area and are yourself working on a non-fan fic speculative fiction project and you are interested let me know. You can post a comment here on the blog saying you are interested or you can reach me through facebook; I am reticent to post my email address to the blog at this time but you can find it on the notices posted at every branch of the London Public Library.

In the political world Canada is aflutter with rumours of impending election. Too bad the only party worth voting for doesn't run candidates outside of Quebec. Outside of Canada all eyes are on Honduras.

If you don't know, the situation is this:

The rightful president of Honduras, Zelaya, came from a center-right party. After assuming the presidency his politics shifted strongly to the left due to the crushing poverty that right-wing, pro-business interests had caused for the majority of the Honduran population.

The hammer fell when Zelaya tried to propose a referrendum on whether to hold an assembly to discuss changes to the constitution. The conservative factions lied and claimed Zelaya was trying to extend his term beyond the constitutionally allowed two terms. The conservative supreme court then convicted him without trial and had the military exile him in direct contravention of the very same constitution they claimed to be protecting.

Well, needless to say, every South American state (excepting Colombia if I recall correctly) has opposed this blatantly illegal coup d'etat. Recently Zelaya returned to Honduras and has received shelter in the Brazilian embassy. The response of the Junta? Tear gas the Brazilian embassy.

Disgusting.

Please write to your member of parliament, your congressman, or (for my readers outside of Canada and the USA) your duly elected representative and call on them to act against the band of thugs who overthrew the democratically elected President of Honduras so that they could keep the people poor and the small elite rich.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Novel Editing Continues (interminably)

I have got my last pages back from my mother and am now in the process of copy-editing them (and doing draft revisions occasionally too when the mood hits me). Did about 2.5 chapters yesterday but the .5 was a mistake. I was still feeling good to go and then hit the first major tangle-up in the third and was like: I don't have the mojo for this right now.

So it's today's project.

Pam picked up a bunch of shifts. On one hand I'm happy because she needed the hours but on the other hand it's a bit of a pain because her shifts are night shifts. This means I don't get to see her much, she's exhausted when she gets home and goes pretty much straight to bed, and our dinner plans for the week are kind of toast.

The Liberals backed the Conservatives on the Colombia free trade agreement. Just goes to show that if you claim to be anti-drug and pro-business it doesn't matter what a tinpot little warlord you really are. I swear, if they ran candidates in Ontario, I'd be voting Bloc who hit the nail on the head when they said "Deux Partis, Un Regard" about the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

RIP Juan Almeida

I know some of my readers are now in the USA. I know that you may not agree with me on what I'm about to say but, bear with me, a lot of what you are told about Cuba is a pack of lies. The truth is that there are more political prisoners held per-capita by the United States than held by Cuba.

The truth is that a media controlled by the state is no less free than a media controlled by multinational corporations.

the truth is that there is a flourishing artistic community in Cuba.

The truth is that although the Revolution has led some people to do hard things; things I don't agree with, such as executing some convicted criminals, it has brought equality to Cuba and improved the lot of the average Cuban over the Batista days. It would have done even more good if not for the morally disgusting blockade still perpetrated by the United States. Furthermore there is no moral grounds upon which to assail Cuba for which the United States is not a greater transgressor.

Now, let me say, I am talking about states, not the citizens therein and the majority of the people in both countries are undoubtedly good people.

It is notable that, according to the World Health Organization, Cuba ranks 118th for per capita health care expenditures and is ranked 39th for quality of care while the United States is ranked 37th despite having the highest per capita health care expenditures in the world.

There is a logic to socialist systems, to an egalitarian system rather than one that allows massive inequality, that can only be denied if one puts on blinders to the facts; the invisible hand of the market is as much an irrational deity as that of any other religion.

Having prefaced my statement I simply wanted to pay my respects to Juan Almeida, the Vice-President of Cuba and one of the original leaders of the Revolution, who died, at the age of 82 of a heart failure.

He will be missed.

I got the second volume of my book back from my parents and will begin proof-reading it tomorrow.

I also wanted to post a recipe. I whipped up a little vegetarian treat for supper tonight and it worked out even better than expected.

The dish is crepes with a ricotta / fig filling. To make it you first need to prepare crepes:
Blend together:

1 cup of all-purpose flour,
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter
3 lg or x-lg eggs

Lightly grease a wide-bottomed, shallow pan.
and cook on medium high for 1-2 minutes per side. As time goes by the pan will get hotter and you should gradually reduce the heat to compensate. Still expect later crepes will cook faster than earlier ones.

After you finish cooking all the crepes make sure any bits of crepe are removed from the pan and, keeping it at low heat, add about 2/3 tbsp of butter to the pan, spreading it evenly about the bottom. This will be used to cook the sauce and filling.

The filling requires:

3 shallots
4 fresh figs
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 lime
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp ground almonds (the almond powder you can get in the bakery aisle of most grocery stores)
1 small tub of ricotta cheese
75 ml (approx) of water blended with 2 tsp (approx) cornstarch.

Cut the shallots and figs into thin slices and put into separate containers.
Squeeze the juice from the lime and mix together with the honey, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom. Add the almond powder and stir until fully mixed.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sautee shallots lightly at low heat.
Wait until shallots about half-way to cooked and toss in sauce.
Cook, mixing constantly for about 30 seconds and then add the figs.
Cook until the figs begin to fall apart. At this point divide mixture in half. Remove half from pan and leave other half simmering at minimum heat.
Put removed mix into a food processor and process until mostly pureed.
Add ricotta cheese to food processor and process until fully blended.
Occasionally stir mix on stove to prevent burning.
Spoon mix in food processor onto crepes and wrap into tubes. Place in an oven-safe clay dish.
Add water mixed with cornstarch to mix on stove and stir until cornstarch sets. Spread mix over top of crepes.
Put in oven and cook for 13-15 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Falun Daffy

Ok, time to jump back into the fires of controversy. Perhaps you have heard of the Falun Gong. The Falun Gong (also called Falun Daffa) claims to be a non-organized group of peaceful exercise enthusiasts being persecuted by evil communist devils and largely the media over here in North America has been happy to collude with this misconception. The participation of certain unimportant, former parliament hill back-bench jockies has not helped to correct these misconceptions.

Unfortunately the only dissenting opinion on this messed up little cult is usually Xinhua; a news agency not known for accuracy in reporting or transparency.

This makes it hard for me. Because, on one hand, I know that Falun Gong manipulates Western anti-communist paranoia to gain adherents but, on the other hand it's hard to point to any truly dispassionate reporting on them.

Well please say hello to one of my new favorite people: Dr. Heather Kavan. Dr. Kavan wrote the single best summary of the controversy surrounding the Falun Gong I have ever read and I think it is a must-read for anybody who wants to know what the yellow-shirted loonies handing out pamphlets in front of Chinese embassies and consolates the world around are really all about. You can read it here.

Supernatural premieres tonight. I am looking forward to it.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

District 9

No blog yesterday because by the time I got home from District 9 I was too wiped to write anything. I am not going to give away any details about the movie because I hate it when people do that but I am going to say this:

Go to see this movie.

It was the best science fiction movie made this decade.

Seriously.

The best.

Hands down.

I do like hard Sci Fi. I really do (unsurprising for a Sci Fi author I suppose) and I have seen a lot of science fiction movies. This beat nearly all of them. It did so by doing what Science Fiction does best: taking contemporary, down to earth issues, and then expressing them through a lense of the fantastic.

Now, fair warning, this is a thinking man's splatterfest. This movie is gory and make no mistake about that. But if those who like intelligent Sci Fi can deal with the gore they will find one of the most effectively crafted tales to come out of the genre in a good long time.

For the fans of the pretty explosions and zappy lazers fair warning must also be given. This movie occasionally stops the relentless tides of violence to demonstrate the basic humanity of the protagonists and to provide well-handled social commentary on contemporary issues such as racism, poverty and genocide.

I will say that Neil Blokamp and Peter Jackson have crafted an uncompromising movie. It is unsurprising that some critics have panned it. I have to express my disagreement with them.
Regardless of how they are percieved by Mr. White, the Prawns are not Spielberg-type aliens. I would say more but that might provide spoilers.

Anyway, I fully intend to get the DVD as soon as it comes out. This is a movie to watch more than once.

In other news, I finished another two chapters in the endless saga of copy-editing my novel. I have my edit-copy coil bound in two volumes and these two chapters represent the end of editing of the first of these volumes. I am also getting feedback from beta-readers about the book which leaves me very optimistic for it's eventual fate while (thankfully) providing me with lots of useful stuff to consider for the second draft.

I've already decided to rewrite the first three chapters in order to include two of the protagonists who were previously introduced in chapter 5 earlier.

Finally I have finally got a response about the writer's group I have been trying to form. Looks like this thing might actually go somewhere after all!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Hot Pot Party / Mahjong / Religulous

So we went to visit with our friends Mark and Jasmine for our second of two Labour Day Weekend parties and we had a great time. First thing off was swimming, Mark and Jasmine are so lucky, they have a saltwater pool in the basement of their apartment building.

After our swim we returned and Mark and I watched Religulous while Pam and Jasmine retreated to the kitchen (I guess watching an American comedian making ironic remarks about religion and interviewing American fringe religious figures was just not something that excited them).

I have to say I was moderately disappointed with it. Certainly there is some viable commentary on the position of religion in 21st century America and a good juxtaposition with early American views on religion. It even makes a strong case for doubt through the course of the central portions of the movie.

However the movie had problems, the largest being a non-sequitur conclusion. Maher spends the whole movie demonstrating religion as irrational and showing how it is used to exploit the poor in the USA but then goes and says religion is going to blow up the world.

Now, I have read Christopher Hitchens and am perfectly aware of the arguments which support the conclusions Maher draws at the end of the film. The problem is that Maher does not build his film towards this conclusion. An argument in favour of reason is stronger when it doesn't make errors in structural logic. Notwithstanding this flaw it was an entertaining, irreverent movie which will probably be enjoyed by most atheists and agnostics.

After the film we played Mahjong. For some reason the tiles were strange today; a lot of unlikely combinations of tiles (frequently fortuitous) kept coming up for everyone and we went through six hands in the time one would normally expect for three. We only ever played the six though as any Mahjong game tends to run a little on the long side and by the time we got around the table once it was getting close to suppertime.

Supper was Huo Guo, a delicacy normally only found in China. This dish is made by placing raw ingredients into a hot broth made from ginger, sichuan pepper, green onion, stock, dates and chili pepper to taste. After placing chopped greens and thinly sliced pieces of vegetable and meat into the broth it is brought back to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil the food is removed again and dipped into a paste made from sesame seeds before being eaten.

After supper we hung out and talked for a while and then left. All in all a very good night.

On the novel front I managed to proof-read another two chapters. My mother blazed through the last hundred pages and has now become the first person to have read the book from cover to cover aside from myself. Next on the beta-reader list is Pam. Then Mark, Greg and or Chris will be up after her depending on whether they want an electronic version or the print copy and when they have the freedom to sit down with a good book and a critical eye.

Didn't get to read much today, what with all the other stuff I was up to so nothing more to say really about the Simon R Green book today.

Tomorrow we go to see District 9. I expect awsomeness in the nth degree.

For pictures from tonight's party (and for other pictures from our life) please read Pam's Blog.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

After the Party

Yesterday we went to the first of two parties we have in the works for the Labour Day weekend. This one was a dinner party at my parents' house. A couple of very old friends came into town and we had Estofado de Cerdo (Cuban Pork Stew), drinks and conversation.

Today is, in theory, rest day for us before tomorrow when we are going to another party, the previously mentioned Mahjong and hot pot party with Mark and Jasmine. Of course we still have stuff to do so it's not going to be an entirely restful day.

Reading Simon R. Green's "Daemons are Forever". It's an entertaining enough book, though rather derivative. The primary antagonists of the novel are 'Loathy Ones' who look like, act like, and are occasionally referred to as Kandarian Demons.

One of these days I will get to Evil Dead: The Musical and I will have front-row seats. Just not any time soon as it has left Toronto and is unlikely to ever tour through London.

Hopefully I can get some more editing done today. I didn't get any work done yesterday, with preparation for the party and all, and it is unlikely I'll get much, if anything done on it tomorrow.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Copy-Editing Day 2

I got two more chapters copy-edited yesterday.
Copy editing is just about the dullest, most gruelling, most painful part of the writing process. It's also entirely crucial. Even if you only have one error on every three pages that's one more error than a manuscript submitted to an agent should have.

It seems a universal piece of advice from agents and publishers alike that once somebody stops editing for content and starts copy editing you may as well forget the content getting edited at all.

And so it falls to the author to take a break from the fun parts of writing to slowly scan page after page of text, not to actually read in any cohesive way but just to search for typos, poor word choices and bad grammar.

The good news is that I am averaging 2 chapters a day. That means I should be finished editing all twenty chapters well before the end of the month.

By then I hope to have had a few of my wonderful, awesome, crucial beta readers give me feedback and I can start on draft 2.

Well... actually that's not true... I've already started on draft 2. I started when I wrote the insert text for the primary that I sort of dropped. But what I mean is that I can get really started on draft 2.

I picked up the most recent issue of The Writer today. If you are trying to start a career as an author I can not stress enough what a good resource this magazine is. Seriously, I have learned quite a lot since I started buying this magazine four issues ago. I haven't had a chance to read this issue yet so no highlights.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Post in Which I Say Something Controversial

I am not a fan of religion.

I think that religions are, in general, crazy, dangerous, divisive and harmful. Notwithstanding that I understand that many human beings have a need to throw an imaginary friend between themselves and the big empty and so I just try to avoid religious debate.

However there is one group that consistently manages to stick up my craw; Evangelical Christians. I was involved, briefly, in a discussion in which an Evangelical Christian was claiming that Emanuel Swedenborg was a satanist!

Now for those of you who don't feel like reading Swedenborg's wiki page he was an influential Swedish (go figure) mystical Christian theologian. He was actually quite conservative and met with abject scorn from William Blake in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell for rather convoluted philosophical reasons.

So why was he a satanist according to this Evangelical?

He rejected the notion of salvation through faith alone. Certainly he thought you needed to believe in the Christian God to get into the Great VIP Room in the Sky but you also had to do good works. How dare he suggest that you have to do good to be treated as a good person! Clearly anybody suggesting that it was moral to do good works rather than throwing yourself blindly into your faith must be a servant of the devil.

Eurgh.

I am not a fan of Swedenborg. I rather side with Blake and found The Marriage of Heaven and Hell to be one of the more interesting writings on early Romantic era philosophy and religion. However I find myself nearly speechless in disgust at the base intolerance that would brand an individual a servant of evil for promoting doing good!

It just makes me shake my head.

Of course this same person was promoting a website that labels Unitarian Universalism a cult.
Because, you know, a non-credal religion founded upon the precepts of a benevolent god who lets everybody into heaven is so much more cult like than these guys.

Anyway, enough on the crazy religionists.

I got a bunch of copy-editing on my book done. Fifty pages checked for typos, misplaced punctuation and all the other joys of the Author's craft. It's truly the most drudge-like part of making a book but it is definitely a necessary step and gives me something to do while my readers are reading it and commenting on it.

If you want to read it let me know in the comments section and we'll talk.

Pam cooked supper tonight, Ochos Rios, a dish involving beans, rice, hot peppers and cocoanut. It is very, very delicious but I'm not posting the recipe because I don't know exactly how she makes it.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bloggers at the Black Shire

It turns out that many of the local bloggers actually have a once-a-month meeting at my local pub. So I had a fun night out and got to meet a bunch of interesting people.

Anyway, got my hands on the latest issue of 'Skeptical Inquirer' today. It has some very good articles in it. There is an exceptional article discussing the flaws with research into correlations between violent media (particularly video games) and aggression.

Now my position is that violent media has been with us as long as media. The earliest extant written work in the English language, Beowulf, involves a graphic depiction of a troll getting his arm ripped clean off. Three of the four classics of Chinese literature contain graphic violence.

Shakespeare, the Bard himself, didn't shy away from the blood when Henry V exhorts his men into the breach even if they rebuild the wall with the bodies of the dead.

Now most video games are not Shakespeare. Even games based on classics of literature (Dynasty Warriors, I'm looking at you) tend to have... sub-standard... plot and dialogue. However the mass nature of the media does not change the fact that the violence is really no different.

Our stories should reflect the human experience, the love, anger, boredom, wonder, sex, violence, fear and joy of life. Censoring a medium, trying to restrict the stories we tell each other says much more about the would-be censor than it does of the people who consume the medium.

There was also an interesting article about the dreaded death-by-cellphone-rf issue. I have never subscribed to this particular fear even before I saw the science behind why this is a non-issue. Now that I have been exposed to said science I see that my lack of fear was well founded.

Speaking of fear...

We must all tremble because fake-rock-fabricator turned pyramid-power author Wayne Herschel is talking to the non-existent moderators of Wikipedia to get me and my shadowy cabal of manipulative manipulators banned. I'm really scared now...

Editing my book is going slower than I would have hoped. Copy-editing is the worst part of the writing process. To bad spell-checkers and grammar-checkers suck.

Just for Clarification

Just to be clear, the spelling mistakes in the block-quotes from Mr. Herschel were not me mistyping. They were copied and pasted directly from the source and were his own.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Next Thing They'll Be Saying I'm a Member of a Shadowy Cabal

So that guy that I mentioned yesterday, the self-published author whose name I couldn't remember, yeah, he's named Wayne Herschel and I guess I've got him pissed.

He says on Dan Brown's Facebook wall (yes, that Dan Brown), and I quote:

WIKIPEDIA FRAUD W.HERSCHEL PAGE NOW READS JIBBERISH - DELETION IMMINENT

I am absolutely appauled with what is going on at wikipedia. the page is so manipulated it is now worthless. The whole carfully presented article with almost two pages of referenc...es has been reduced to one paragraph of jiberish saying I claimed findings on some other idiots work, (who was known to have generalised poor correlations long before the work of Bauval)... and say that I claim the grand meaning to be Stonehenge!

No reasoning no explanations, my two periodical references they asked to be place today have been removed by a mass attack of people on wikipedia.

Added to this... the discussion page has someone saying I only have 300 google hits to my name when there are many times that amount and they say I put most of them there! absolute madness.

I throw in the towel here because if i put it all correct ... the next day it will say I claim to have invented the wheel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Wayne_Herschel\


Previously, Herschel said:

If there are any wiki subscribers out there we need numbers... some have tried to help already but the manipulators there will not allow two important uploads complete the page to be an accep...table author page.

I have just been talking to Nirman... and he tried uploading my bio and periodical references as the wikipedia page requests and some malicious group is deleting them.

1)The two periodical references are on record here:
http://www.thehiddenrecords.com/press_release.htm

2)Biography text
http://www.wayneherschel.com

There is a full barage there of people (discussion page) manipulating the uploads that wiki are saying they need... any wiki members out there please can you intervene if possible. I am so tied up trying to save my book as well... I am not managing at all with this crazy stuff.

HERE IS THE CRAZY DISCUSSION PAGE... WHO CAN FIGURE A WAY TO FIX IT?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wayne_Herschel



Now here is what is so funny about this: this malicious group of manipulators is... well... me and like three other guys who frequent the Fringe Theory noticeboard. The malicious manipulations in question were just deleting references and clarifying statements drawn from Mr. Herschel's own bio material. I guess he's grumpy we didn't just copy it whole-cloth. I suppose nobody told Mr. Herschel that Wikipedia isn't prlog.org and nobody there is interested if he touts his silly mars-face book.

Anyway, I responded to these crazed complaints in the only reasonable way I could... I posted a link over here to my blog on my Wikipedia user page.

Anyway, as I try to contain my booming guffaws at Mr. Herschel's invective I think I'll change to some other, less frivolous subject.

I am a cyclist. Bicycling is environmentally friendly, promotes a healthy lifestyle and is mostly sufficient for the urban life I currently lead. I also live in a city where, as a cyclist, I am nearly run over once a week.

So it was with some shock and horror that I saw this story over at CBC.CA:

Former Ontario AG Bryant charged in cyclist's death


Now I'm not saying that the cyclist was necessarily entirely in the right, regardless of what happened, but if an angry guy on a bike is grabbing onto your car you call the police; you don't run over him with your car. There is absolutely no excuse for that.

Ok, now that I've dealt with frivolous Wikipedia tempest in a teapot and the most awful provincial level news I've heard all month one last thing:

Made Apple Flaske for dinner tonight. Recipe has a few innovations of my own and I wanted to share it.

Ingredients:

4 pieces cured pork backs rolled in corn meal (canadian bacon)
4 small apples.
1.5 red onions
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper
A tiny bit of water with 2.5 tsp of corn starch suspended in it.

Side dish was boiled potatoes in lemon dill butter

4 potatoes
1 sprig dill
Juice from 1/2 lemon
butter

So you cut everything and make up the lemon dill butter by blending the sprig of dill and the lemon juice together with about 2 tbsp of butter.

Sprinkle some lemon juice on the cut apples so they don't brown.

Then you start lightly frying the pork, adding spices to taste. When the pork is becomes light pink on both sides add the onion. When the onion begins to soften add the apples.

Drizzle on some maple syrup and toss the dish thoroughly

Add the corn starch water and cook until apples are thoroughly cooked.

Serve immediately.

For the potatoes boil until cooked and then toss with lemon dill butter. Serve immediately.

Well... that does my random musings in for the day. Until tomorrow...

Whoops!

Pam was trying to follow my blog but apparently I was signed in and so now I'm listed as following my own blog. That was silly.

Update: Fixed it.