The version I’m sharing is exactly what I made - a lower-fat type of beef dish. You can easily use the “real” stuff instead (full fat cream cheese and ricotta, a more marbled cut of beef, etc.). I’ll tell you what - we did not miss the fat in this one. It was just lovely!

Ingredients

• 2lb. Flank Steak, lean and trimmed
• ½ cup reduced fat cream cheese
• ½ cup fat free ricotta
• 6 oz. baby spinach, or however much comes in 1 bag
• Dill
• Lemongrass
• Salt (I favor Jurassic Salt)
• Smoked pepper (regular pepper will do, if you don’t have cool stores near you like Heather’s Heat that sell this stuff)
• Olive Oil

Kitchen Tools

• Meat tenderizer
• Cutting board you can beat the bejeasus out of
• Baking sheet
• Medium sauce Pan
• Saran wrap

Spread your flank steak out on the cutting board and…well…*sigh*…start beating your meat. Pulverize the steak until it is as thin as you can get it. I was able to get it about 1/3″ thick. Spread it so you have plenty of room to roll it with the grain of the meat later. This will require tenderizing and then squishing with the palms of your hands or maybe a rolling pin (Saran wrap might be handy here). I really don’t know the best way to do this - it’s the first time I did it myself, and I was just making it up as I went.

Mix the ricotta and cream cheese until they’re smooth. Add dill and lemongrass to flavor. I have no idea how much…maybe ¼ of a teaspoon? Add it until you like the taste - whatev. Add a dash of salt, mix a little more and spread this mixture evenly over your flank steak.

Heat up the saucepan with just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Wash your spinach, dry it (I just wrung it out with my hands), and pan fry the spinach until it’s nicely wilted. Add salt and smoked pepper right when you put the spinach in the pan. I don’t know how much; don’t ask me these things. Just make it tasty. Add a thin layer of spinach to the top of the cheese mixture on the flank steak.

Next, move your layered steak onto Saran wrap, and roll it up into a pinwheel. Make sure you don’t roll the saran wrap too! When you have it rolled all the way up, wrap the outside tightly with Saran wrap. Then take the sharpest knife you own and cut 1″ rounds off the pinwheel. You should get plenty out of this. We ended up with 12 rounds.

Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. This is probably even better on the grill, but I don’t have an indoor grill, and it was freaking freezing outside.

This recipe is super tasty just like it is, but if you want some sauce, I threw together something that actually ended up really good - completely by accident (I rummaged and mixed up whatever sounded ok from my fridge - that’s pretty much how I cook anyway).

Sauce

• Ketchup - a lot
• Mustard - a little (dijon/brown, not yellow or sweet)
• Worchestershire sauce - a fair bit
• Pepper - as you like it
• Whiskey - a dash

Mix them all up, and then add a little pinch or dash of whatever until it tastes just right to you. It should be reminiscent of A1, but more interesting and flavorful.

So, earlier this week, I broke my cell phone. It was Monday night, and I accidentally dropped it off a counter in my kitchen. This shouldn’t be a big deal - I was paying for the full replacement insurance, and I was still under warranty. Between the two, I should be able to get a replacement.

I go to the Verizon Store on Tuesday, and ask about getting my phone replaced. No problem - my coverage handles it. The only problem is that my particular phone (HTC Touch Pro) is not being stocked by any stores or local warehouses (it wasn’t exactly Verizon’s most popular or loved phone).

Still not a problem. I pay $16 to get priority overnight shipping, so I’ll have my replacement by 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. I knew I wouldn’t be able to coordinate my day to intercept the package at 10 a.m., but I could get the delivery slip and pick it up after 4 p.m. It’s tough not having a phone or my contacts available, but I can muddle through a couple days if need be.

I pick up my phone from the local FedEx Express center, bring it home, open it up…it’s the wrong phone. They sent me the HTC Diamond instead of the Touch Pro - a similar phone, but made differently (it’s smaller, doesn’t have the slide-out keyboard, etc.).

Now, here’s a little insight into the replacement plan. When you invoke the manufacturer’s replacement, you receive a stripped down phone that contains no components - no external card, no battery, and no battery cover/backplate (and it’s a certified reused phone). Normally this makes sense - if you’re replacing a bad unit, you shouldn’t need to replace all those components too.

I call Verizon, tell the customer service representative my story, and he goes through his script, asking me what’s wrong with the replacement. He actually asked me “do you not like the phone you got at all?” No, I don’t like the replacement phone, but that’s beside the point. It wasn’t the right phone! So he escalates this up to a service tech who can give me more option insight and options.

Here’s the punchline. According to the technician who handled my escalated complaint, it is standard procedure to replace the Touch Pro with a Diamond in the event the warehouse does not contain any Touch Pro units. It is standard procedure to replace a customer’s phone, on warranty, with a completely different phone.

Does anyone else see the problem with this?

I now have a broken phone with all its componentry and a replacement phone that doesn’t even have a back cover! If I’m supposed to replace my Touch Pro with the step-down Diamond unit, what the hell am I supposed to do with the back cover, slap a piece of duct tape on it? Wrap it in Saran Wrap? Rubber bands?

When I was two years old, my parents gave me a big wooden box (looking back, it wasn’t really that big, but I was small, so I was impressed). This box had a bunch of holes in it - a round hole, a square hole, a triangle hole and a few others. Then they gave me a bunch of wooden shapes to insert into those holes. Here’s the test - if you can successfully insert those shapes into the right holes at the age of two, you might not grow up to be a complete moron!

Well, it looks like someone in Verizon management didn’t do too well on the box/shapes test, because here I am with a Touch Pro back cover, which is a few millimeters longer than the Diamond and in no way fits or locks into the back panel, and a Diamond phone that is completely useless to me.

I think it would do Verizon wonders if they added the following cognitive test to management candidates in order to assess their problem-solving and decision-making abilities:

All of my ranting aside, the Verizon technician was very helpful and accommodating. I was three weeks away from being eligible for a phone upgrade (which I was planning to do anyway), and we worked out a compromise where I get my upgrade early and they ship it out next day (which means tomorrow/Friday, because the warehouse was closed for the day when I called), and I get to keep the half-assed replacement phone, which I can probably throw on eBay for $20 as a replacement unit for someone else who actually has a Diamond.

This does mean that my total phone downtime will be nearly four days by the time all is said and done - Monday evening through Friday afternoon. I can receive calls on my broken phone, but with my screen busted, I have no idea who’s calling, I can’t return missed calls unless they leave a message, and I can’t receive or send text messages. So I’m pretty handicapped in the cellular department.

Bottom line: I still like Verizon. I like the service, the coverage and their phones. Their support staff are very nice (in store and on the phone), and they did try to make everything right in spite of their mistakes. They just need to replace Bobo the warranty monkey with someone who can make better decisions regarding how their warranties get honored.

Thus endeth my rant.

It is insanely difficult to choose “Top X” lists or favorite pieces for me when it comes to classical music, because my answers will change on a daily basis, and I’ll rattle off hundreds of pieces in my head (or out loud if you’re unfortunate enough to be near me at the time) trying to come up with a list.  But, here is my attempt anyway. I’m just going to create some categories out of the air, and we’ll see what comes of it:

Favorite Piece To Play: Schubert - Piano Sonata in Bb Major

(Part 1 of 6) I’m not the most accomplished pianist, and this piece fits right into my skill level, plus is it incredibly evocative, as is generally the case with Schubert. In a close second is Schubert’s Impromptu in C Minor, Op. 90. We’ll be revisiting Schubert later in the list, I promise!

Greatest Showcases of Virtuosity: Henry Charles Litolff - Concerto Symphonique #4 Scherzo | Nikolai Kasputin - Largo & Perpetuum Mobile

I had to list two pieces here, because I just couldn’t select one for this category, particularly since they are both rather obscure and each magnificent in its own way. If anyone other than Shoko Inoue has ever recorded the Kasputin piece, I’d love to know about it. The recording above came from my own personal archives, when I participated in recording the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999. I imagine someone will ask me to remove this eventually, but it’s worth posting now and apologizing later, because the piece is too good not to share with the world.

Favorite Vocal Performance: Friedrich von Flotow - M’Appari, from the Opera Marta

I’ve been attached to this song ever since I saw the movie Breaking Away as a little kid. This barely beat out Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Die schöne Müllerin…and a few dozen others

Favorite Solo (almost) Piece I Can’t Play: Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata

(Part 1 of 2) I don’t think I’ll be skewered too badly for this choice. It’s a bit of a …mainstream choice, if such a thing exists in classical music, but I love every note of it!

Favorite Concerto: Schumann - Piano Concerto in A Minor

(Part 1 of 4) I’ll definitely get skewered for this choice. It has to be one of the most recorded full orchestra pieces ever, along with Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor (I have own the score, but I don’t own the skill). I actually prefer Grieg’s second movement to Schumann’s (an allowable comparison, given how often the two are paired into the same recording). I’m not the biggest Helene Grimaud fan (she lost me with her rendition of Brahms’ Rhapsodies - a little too quick for my taste), but I found her Schumann interpretation to be spectacular.

Favorite Piece My Dad Plays: Beethoven - Sonata Pathetique

I enjoy playing this piece as well (I taught myself to play the second movement blindfolded), but from my earliest childhood memories, I’ll forever associate this piece with my dad. And he plays it very, very well. As far as recordings go, I’ll take the entire Beethoven Sonata collection by son of family friend Anton Kuerti, if asked. I’m almost equally a fan of my dad’s Soler and Scarlatti. I’m pretty sure he knows all 650+ sonatas by heart.

Favorite Piece to See Performed Live: Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition | Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt

(Part 1 of 4) I didn’t provide a sample of Peer Gynt, because it only makes my list if it is narrated, which adds a really nice performance element to it. I actually prefer Mussorgsky’s Pictures orchestrated, versus how he intended (piano solo). Bruckner’s Symphony #7 heads up a lengthy list of other pieces that are serious contenders for this category too.

Favorite 4-Handed Piano: Schubert - Fantasy in F Minor

(Part 1 of 2) One more Schubert? Why not! I don’t know if he’s my favorite composer, but he’s certainly produced many of my favorites, and this is another one that’s actually in my skill range - I can play all four hands of the first page-and-a-half by myself before it falls apart (it’s really is meant for two people to play).

Well, that’s plenty for now. Maybe I’ll continue or revise this list in the future. Feel free to share your favorites or debate the merits of mine.!

The party itself went great, and once the food and wine part was over, it was time for mixed drinks. I poached a drink recipe from a trendy restaurant in Wooster, Ohio (Sarah, if you’re reading this, please help me with the name!), and after a little experimentation, I came up with what is now our “house drink.” Even though it is an Amaretto Sour, I’ve renamed it “Orange Popsicle,” because that’s what everyone says it taste like.

Orange Popsicle

• 3 Lemons
• 3 Limes
• 6 heaping teaspoons of suger
• 1 shot of Cointreau
• Amaretto

Squeeze the lemons and limes into a shaker. Make sure no pulp or seeds get in; use a hand juicer. Add the sugar and Cointreau (I don’t actually measure the Cointreau, so just splash it in until you feel good about it). Shake vigorously until the sugar is completely dissolved. You’ve just created the world’s tastiest sour mix, and you’ll never use that bottled syrup crap again.

Pour over rocks, 50% mix, 50% Amaretto. Stir until mixed, and enjoy. Depending on how generous you are, you’ll have enough sour mix for 4-6 drinks.

Hope you like it!

• 1 stick butter - real butter - not that light crap
• 2/3 cup sugar - I use a 1/2 cup measure and heap it
• 1/2 cup maple syrup - REAL syrup, from Amish trees
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 vanilla bean - not that extract crap
• 1 cup peanuts - dry roasted, unsalted
• 1 tsp. salt - use less/none if you use saltier bacon
• 1/3 cup bacon - very crispy, finely chopped, cold. The smokier/saltier, the better.

Kitchen Tools

• Large sauce pan - use highest heat the whole time
• Wooden spoon
• Cookie sheet, lined with foil and sprayed with Pam
• Cooling rack

Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the pods. Melt the butter, sugar, maple syrup, salt, vanilla pods and corn syrup together (you may want to nuke the corn syrup for 20 seconds so it pours into the pot easier). Heat to a bubbling boil. Add peanuts and stir. Keep stirring. Keep stirring. You’re doing great - keep stirring.

So, this is the part where everyone screws up the recipe. I’ve heard you’re supposed to heat it until a candy thermometer shows 290 degrees, but I don’t own and have never used one of those. Candy thermometers are for sissies. Instead, I judge doneness by color and consistency. After 5-10 minutes, the candy mixture will start to darken slightly, thicken and boil less. At that moment, add the bacon and stir it in. Over the next minute or two, the mixture will darken a little more, and at some point you need to pull it off the stove. It’s instinctive - burn a couple batches and you’ll learn (once you get it, you’ll never miss it again).

Quickly pour the mixture onto your baking sheet and spread it. If you think the mixture might be overdone, toss it immediately into the fridge to stop it from cooking any longer. If it’s still a lighter, carmel color, you can leave it out or fridge it, your choice. Let it cool until it’s, well, brittle. Bust it up, and enjoy!

With that out of the way, I’ll turn my attention to Hip Hop. Let me preface the rest of this post by saying this is purely my own opinions. They may look like facts, but this is just my observations and my own feelings on the subject. Hip Hop hit a golden age somewhere around 1995-2000. The 20 years prior, Hip Hop was still defining itself, and struggling to establish its credibility within the music industry. By the early 90s, Hip Hop was fully entrenched in mainstream music, and by the mid-90s, it had grown into a dominant force. More important, because Hip Hop was so new, almost everything artists brought to the table was innovative. Artists like Rakim, Wu Tang Clan group and individual projects (most notably Raekwon, RZA, Ghostface and Genius), CMW, NAS, Outkast, Mobb Deep, the reemergence of early pioneers like EPMD, Black Sheep and Q-Tip/Tribe and a slew of smaller artists (Pharcyde, Camp-Lo, Jeru, Skee-Lo, etc.) made the 90s golden for me.

In 1999, I made a most amazing discovery…Hip Hop was alive and well all over the world! Over the next couple years, my music collection featured artists like Iam, Faf Larage, Articolo, Molesta Ewenement, Muzion, Saian Supa Crew, Sans Pression, Diams, MC Solar, Arsenik, NTM, the list goes on and on. Most of my interest was in the Hip Hop culture of France and French Canada, for no particular reason except that it was most accessible to me.

Here’s the thing. Since the early-mid 2000s, U.S. Hip Hop has stagnated in my eyes. It’s just not all that interesting. Nothing new or interesting comes out of it. But I regularly listen to tracks from 5-10 years ago produced by foreign groups (as well as newer releases) and wish the U.S. scene could take a hint from them. Maybe it’s because foreign groups focus more on the music (which is my first love - lyrics are secondary for me) than U.S. groups do. Maybe it’s because they seem to have a lot more fun with the music and the whole scene in general. Maybe it’s because some of it has a throwback feel to that golden age I remember so fondly.

Whatever the reason, I would be remiss if I didn’t share a few choice tracks with the world, courtesy of my favorite Internet jukebox, YouTube. Enjoy!

• “Nikt i Nic” - Molesta Ewenement, 2008
• “Kto Jest Kto” - Molesta Ewenement, 1999
• “J Ai Dit” - Saian Supa Crew, 20??
• “Jeune Demoiselle Recherche” - Diams, 2006
• “Nouvelle Page” - Sans Pression, 2008?
• “Mon Clan” - Shurik’n, 2000
• “Avoir des Potes” - Oxmo Puccino, 2002
• “Sexcitations” - Pit Baccardi, 2004
• “Le Retour du Shit Squad” - Iam & Fonky Family, 20??
• “Ils Ne Savent Pas” - Starflam, 2003
• “Game Over” - 2 Faces, 2003
• “Pouki Sa” - San Pression, 1999?
• “Le Bilan” - Neg’Marrons, 2004 (orig. release ?)
• “Si Triste” - 3eme Oeil, 2002
• “La Fidanzata” - Articolo 31, 1998

Yesterday, I went to a sleep clinic to see whether or not I’m having any difficulties breathing at night. I had no idea what to expect, and it was quite an experience! If you can get past the hard mattress, flimsy pillows and clinic-like atmosphere, it’s really not too bad. The staff was very nice, the room was very dark, and you get over the fact that you’re on an infrared camera and microphone pretty quickly.

The most interesting part is the preparation, when they cover you with electrodes and hook you up to your monitor. This is actually the reason I wanted to make this post, because I just had to share the pics

Meet Willard Wigan, the artist who was convinced by his teachers, peers and society that he was worth nothing. His disabilities meant that he could never learn to read and write, but he’s more than made up for that by developing one amazing talent, turning nothing into something.

“I’m trying to prove to the world that ‘nothing’ doesn’t exist.” - Willard Wigan

A few days ago, a client sent me a forwarded email containing a handful of photos he wanted added to his site. This would be an unremarkable request, except that the email forward contained an exchange he was having with another Web designer, asking for quotes to have his Web site redesigned and maintained in the future. I was shocked - either my client accidentally showed me an email I wasn’t supposed to see, or this was his way of telling me we were no longer going to do business together. Either way, my pride as a professional was deeply wounded.

When I read his email, my first reaction was to do something very stupid. I nearly wrote the client back with a number of untruths, to tell him we’d outgrown him, that his patronage wasn’t desirable and it was best for him to look elsewhere for a designer to take over his Web operations. My ego was damaged, and I almost allowed it to dictate my actions. Instead, I reined myself in, and sent back a message stating I’d read the contents of his forwarded email, and that if he was indeed planning to move forward with another designer, he would want some statistical and strategic information regarding site visitor growth so the new designer could continue our upward trends. It was as much a way of reminding the client we were experiencing success as it was me acknowledging I’d read his message and was willing to be cooperative to the end.

Assumptions are very powerful things - not inherently good or bad, just powerful. They allow us to fill in the unknowns in our realities with what we perceive to be facts. We act on assumptions as if they are real; we must do this! If we waited until we had every single fact about every single situation, we’d never make a decision and never get anything done. I felt I had all the information I needed to understand the situation I was presented, and I responded to the client based on my assumptions.

I’m very fortunate I chose to bury my pride before reacting to my assumptions. The client responded the next morning to let me know our relationship was not in jeopardy, the exchange I witnessed was related to a completely different project, and the other designer was brought in by committee, outside of his control. He also mentioned the scale and budget of this other project would likely have been undesirable too.

My assumptions were very wrong - that much is human error and quite forgivable. My reaction was almost disasterous. Had I reacted based on my pride, I would surely have lost a client and friend. I’m fortunate I get to share with you an exercise in humility, not a story of loss.

This isn’t as much a lesson in having the wherewithall to handle ego-based situations professionally as it is a lesson in proper mindsets and perspective. I ended up making the right decisions in my response, but I spent a day feeling just awful about myself (didn’t sleep too well that night either) and it turns out there was no reason to do so. Ignoring my pride prevented a disaster. Had I sought more information before forming my assumptions, I could have also prevented a lot of anxiety and inner-turmoil. I only fell asleep because I eventually convinced myself I didn’t care.

Of course I care. If I didn’t care, what would be the point?

My expectations were low, for four reasons. First, I had the characters and settings already pictured in my head, and I knew no matter how much I was committed to accepting Catherine Hardwicke’s interpretation of the book, it just wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t match up with the images in my mind. Second, movies based on books like this are rarely as entertaining. Third, the story doesn’t lend itself very well to cinema; the settings are dull, the characters are mostly one-dimensional - it works in writing, but I didn’t expect much on-screen. Finally, this was one hell of a hyped movie. The expectations set by the production houses were very high, a recipe for failure.

I think Amy was expecting more than me. To say she hated it would be a bit strong, but she was definitely underwhelmed. I think I did myself a favor by not expecting much, because while it’s not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, I did find myself entertained.

First, the highlights. The movie actually looked the way I thought it would in my head! The town looked how I expected. Charlie’s house looked close to what I pictured, though I thought it would be a little darker - more wooden. The reservation and beach were just what I had in mind. Ditto for the school and Cullens’ house. The filmography was generally pretty good. The movie score was fitting and set the mood for the movie well. There were a lot of good elements - a good base for a good movie.

The casting had high points and low points for me. I wasn’t a fan of Kristen Stewart as Bella, but months ago I had it in my head that Kat Dennings would be perfect in the role. So I was biased. Robert Pattinson as Edward? No thank you. Billy Burke was the perfect Charlie. Without throwing around actors’ names, Emmet, Alice, and the whole crew of Bella’s school friends were all very well cast (except for Eric - holy crap, someone needs to beat that kid with the acting stick). Bella’s friends gave me that slightly nauseous revulsion feeling which typically hits me when a group of clueless kids walks by too close - good casting indeed! Rosalie as the “impossibly beautiful blond?” Wow - that was a miss! And Carlisle looked like a grown-up version of Eddie Munster. Jasper’s screentime was mercifully short. Like I said, the casting was a mixed bag.

The movie fell apart with the acting and special effects. Too much of the acting was just too piss-poor to make a positive impression on the audience. The vampire speed-running was nothing less than ridiculous - the theater crowd got in more than a few laughs at the expense of Twilight’s effects. The acting didn’t completely ruin the movie only because the movie followed the book pretty well, and the story itself was good enough to pull it through.

Overall, I’ve seen better, but I was sort of entertained. I know a good movie when I see it, and this was not a good movie. We’ll see the sequel, I’m sure. I would be perfectly happy if they recast half the movie with actual actors the next time around.

Plot: ****
Acting: *
General Entertainment Value: ***
Overall Score: **½