What I did this Week - 4/22/12

I guess I could talk about how I visited Barnes and Nobles for the first time in my life and found a few books which I bought, all of them sci-fi and have something to do with the games I play; and a manga which I've been wanting to read for a while about creating manga. On top of that, talk about a movie I saw on Friday that to me was hit and miss with a lot of it's jokes, the actors being solid in there roles, at least to me. As for how it affects me, it doesn't. It's just another form of entertainment for me to enjoy without ever having to learn anything. But a lot of that probably wouldn't seem interesting to the people I'm expressing myself to. You see what I did? I summed up my thoughts in a few sentences. Run-on sentences, but I summed them up. That's a bad habit I've gotten into when it comes to typing anything; the run-on sentences. But then again, I'm no literature expert, so I don't even know if they count as run-on or not. And that's what this post will boil down to: the fact that I can't write for jack squat. Sure, I can come up with ideas on the fly, but putting them to paper and wording it in a way that makes it interesting for the target reader is hard in itself. It's much more difficult than I had anticipated, and as such it can be downright boring or uninteresting to look at and read. Sometimes I can just write as it comes off the top of my head easily, and some days I have to actually put a lot of thought into them. And most of the time, I'm set with a schedule I have to keep up with and complete a blog as just another means to an end. And that's not what blogging means to me. Blogging should be a way for me to have a little fun, practice my writing, express myself the way I want to, and just overall get better at it so I can enjoy it more. If I have to force myself at the end of each and every single week to write a blog post just because some guy told me to do so, then I can't do it. It irritates me to just talk about a movie that NO ONE else that reads this blog even knows what I'm talking about. Movie is Three Stooges, by the way. It's certainly not very good to talk about manga, and half the people that I have reading the blog have no clue what manga is. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate everyone that views this blog and the TWO people that actually commented on it, but I can't continue to make blogs if I can't write about the stuff I want to say. All I really want is for people to look at my work and tell me what I can do to improve it. That is all. I'm not asking for people to ALWAYS comment on my work, just a few things that'll help me be better as a writer. I shouldn't have to explain to people what I'm talking about. The audience I want to target should be able to look up what I'm talking about without me having to explain what a manga actually is. It's a comic made in Japan. See? Wasn't that so damn informative? You'd find a lot better info on the subject online than you would from me. I just want to express my opinions on the subject, not have to explain what the object is. How in the hell did I get more than 47 views from just writing about the process of cooking rather than writing about something I enjoyed in general or enjoyed doing that week? It bugs me to think that THIS is what people are more interested in. I don't even have the type of audience who is into the type of stuff I'm into, so what the hell is even the point of writing these blogs? I guess it's just another one of those things for me to think about for later. And that's what's up.

What I did today - 4/13/12

This will be a long line of different blog posts talking about the new stuff I've done during the days to come. So without further adieu, let's start.

Today I learned how to cook some stir-fry. The process was simple in itself, not too complex like what I've done to make both fried rice and General Tso's chicken, using popcorn chicken and a bottle of pre-made General Tso's sauce. I instead started by cutting up half a pound of raw chicken, then cut up some onions and broccoli to add a few vegies into the mix. Carrots needed to be peeled a bit before they were cut. The chicken was put into a bowl and doused with a bit of salt and pepper, afterwards applying some of the Stir-Fry sauce from the Kikkoman brand. It was okay, for the most part. The rice is poured into a small pot, probably about 1 cup or so, and then 1 cup of water is poured in. Cover, stove is turned up high, allowing for the water to boil. As this happens, two tablespoons of stir-fry oil is poured into a separate pan, and stove is put on medium heat. The onions are the first to be put into the pan. Stir until softened. Then the other vegetables are put into the pan as well, stirring those as well. Cook until softened. It was around this point that the rice had absorbed most of the liquid and tenderized. It is okay if some of it sticks to the bottom of the pan, just set it to low heat, or just turn it off all together and let it sit until stir-fried chicken is done. Pour chicken into pan with vegetables and stir in, cooking until meat is no longer pink. about around a cup of the stir-fry sauce is poured over vegetables and chicken, then stirred in. Let it cook until you can cut the chicken down the middle. Serve in a bowl on top of rice.

I guess it was okay to learn a bit more about cooking. Of course, I didn't really have to learn anything about cooking in general. Of course you have to watch and make sure nothing catches on fire and look after the food to make sure it doesn't burn. I knew abit about this kind of stuff before anyone came along to tell me all from just looking it up on the internet, and using a bit of common sense. All I did learn was a new recipe. That's about it.

As for how the food tastes. Well, it's food. Only thing that stood out to me were the carrots. Because I bought fresh carrots and cut them up, I think they were, I guess, sweet then the carrots I'm use to eating, from pre-made dinners. The vegetables weren't as tender as I'd hope they would be. I'd probably rectify that in the future. Maybe add a bit of water and cover the pan before cooking the chicken.

This experience wasn't exactly the most thrilling thing. It was just a very mediocre experience, cause well, I wasn't actually learning anything. I could've probably done most of this stuff myself had I looked it up online or just got a bit curious and tried to find new foods to cook. But I guess I now have something to show off to the family, even if it really isn't show-off worthy, at least to me.

I'm not the type of guy who enjoys cooking. It's just a means to an end, and it's healthier for you anyway. I enjoy gaming and watching things on the computer than I ever will cooking. Now creating something on the computer, that is a whole different story. This is Reese Hoffman, signing out.