Life In The Lapse I : Syncretic Decay

(Let me appologize in advance for the quality of grammer here. I am bound to typing on a badly-damaged touchscreen for a few more days.)

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I am a member of the Choose Your Own generation. We come from an entertainment culture of games and books so open-ended that clear interpretations are entirely subjective. As a result, we ourselves take things in pieces.

For me, at least, religion is no different. A brain fuelled by critical thought on every available topic leaves little room for rote orthodoxy. In the months following my conversion, I grew increasingly heterodox, as I dropped doctrinal positions I knew in my heart to be false - in a manner of speaking.

I replaced thed doctrines with new ones - often borrowed from the world's other religions - to try and make sense of issues I have only half-understood. It probably wouldn't surprise anyone that the geneartion of infalibility produced an attitude of unaccountability, but there you are.

Still, from time to time, I feel a call back to orthodox Catholicism. Perhaps not radical orthodoxy as grows prevelant in the Catholic blogging community. I think simpy accepting the dictates of the Catechism should suffice.

An Announcement Long in Coming

This seems to be a suitably recent photo.

So while those of you who are also friends with me on facebook have already long known what I'm about to tell you, as are those who know me or The Katherine in person (these groups are not identical), there's quite a few of you out there who I hope are still reading who haven't been told.

Back in April, on our 7th dating anniversary at a cosy little sushi restaurant downtown here, Katherine and I got engaged to be married.

There aren't many details to be had besides that just yet, but I'm sure I'll be too excited to not keep you posted!

The Polymath Approach

Vault 29 owns this photo of my work.

One of the things I like most in life is the development of skills. I hesitate to say I am an expert in anything - whenever I become convinced I have attained some level of mastery in this hobby or that ability, the universe conspires to forcibly remind me that I'm going to likely be a student forever.

My current sous-chef (that is to say, under whom I work, not who works under me), actually, has a favoured saying in the family regarding such things, namely, "if you are the smartest person in a room, you are in the wrong room". Granted, he usually says this while actively being the smartest person in the room - but tales from the workplace are past-tense now that Anthony Bourdain wrote his Kitchen Confidential.

Something I fail to capitalize on, however, is the idea that all the numerous individual skills and talents I daily hone can be taken together. While this is somewhat obvious in the fusion of my business and culinary training in the rekindled desire to open a restaurant of my own one day, being as I am a mad man in a hurry to grow grey.

However, it's taken until relatively recently to realize that sometimes the lessons from one profession, or indeed one hobby, can be taken together with the goals and lessons of another. For some time, the Katherine has been expounding upon the virtues of her powerful design systems and extensive training, while I sit here in my obstinate refusal to admit that Word is not perfectly adequate for all tasks.

This comes in a number of forms - it's basically an extension of the idea that no man is an island, only applied to skills - but I think the true inventiveness is in the overlap. The visual arts impact the culinary in more ways than cute menu photography. Colour theory works as well on the plate as on canvas. A good understanding of growing conditions and labour involvement leads to a better understanding of the true value of food. Spreadsheets are remarkably useful in the kitchen both at home and at work. And so on.

Mostly, though, the whole concept is good for filling a page or two, while I wait to make a much larger announcement tomorrow.

Seven Quick Takes: Take-Noko!

--- 1 ---

Urban Exploration Phototime

The fact that I'm doing a link-up of any sort pretty well tells you I'm not very good at coming up with ideas on the fly anymore. Truth be told I spent most of my mental energy on retaining a number of things I promised myself (and have been told by wiser folk than I) not to hold on to anymore. While I'm pleased to learn my memory is much more voluminous than I give it credit for, I'd really rather use it for other things. I suppose the only thing for that would be to finally offload some of the memory-kruft into other formats. Speaking as someone equipped with a reasonably broad pallet of paper-based and digital storage media, you'd think I'd be able to get a handle on all this junk... but no, not so much.

--- 2 ---

Over a year ago now, I had a particularly bad week at the old Pet Store, where i used to work at the time, as many of you will remember. There was a spree of bad luck involving a number of digital devices - my phone and my iPod Classic among them. Screens were broken, nasty words spoken to nobody in particular, and the up and down of it is that I wound up with no real motivation to replace them.

It wasn't that I wasn't replacing broken things. I have replaced, since then, several pairs of headphones (including a very expensive computer headset I use for doing audio-video work and gaming, the five minutes a week I have to myself). But the thing is, I have always been bad with my electronics, since I was very young. I suppose a factor in that might have been my generation (I had a freakin' palm pilot in 1999. When I would have been in the fourth or fifth grade. That's messed up), but the factors don't mitigate the problem.

I figured if I could go a year, limping along with equipment that was in less-than-perfect condition, I could make do. The iPod was a relatively easy fix - set single playlists of a manageable length and change them out when they get boring. The phone itself was a non-issue. I can't always see the screen as well, but the touch functionalities still worked fine, and I could still bank, hammer out a text message, or dial as I saw fit. It wasn't until recently, when dust and moisture started being able to get their way into the phone, that the broken glass really became an issue. If it wasn't for that, honestly I would have waited another year, until my contract expires and I can get a new phone at reduced cost.

Now, I'll probably do an early upgrade - renewing my contract on new terms - or buy a used phone of a similar model. The iPod itself as simply stopped working altogether. The four or five days I went without it were so torturous that I'm borrowing a spare one of The Lady's until I can replace it, or at least ween myself off of having total audio control.

--- 3 ---

Fredericton, where I now live and have for several months, was recently struck by the tail-end of Tropical Storm Arthur. This is not an unusual occurence in this part of Canada, and in fact, living closer to the ocean as I used to, I became rather used to the odd bit of high winds and heavy rains that such storms represented. That's why I was surprised to not only lose power on the day of the storm (a Saturday), but to not get it back until Tuesday of the following week. While I freely admit that nothing in my fridge was quite so "correct" as I would have liked it to be, the loss of a few pounds of salmon, half a pork tenderline, a bit of leftover roast duck, and all told about another $80 worth of condiments, long-storage dairy, and other munchables was sort of an unexpected kick in the gut.

The part of the storm I can't stop laughing about, though: Literally two nights before, I threw out my best-and-only piezoelectric flashlight because some impact or another had cracked the casing in a way that rendered it inoperable. They say it never rains...

--- 4 ---

Beautiful work patio often leads to late nights after-hours.

I just can't get enough of this new game I've been playing. It's supremely irritating when my brain does this sort of thing, in some ways, though there is a great and satisfying itch in the childlike enthusiasm for the latest whateverthehell has my attention now.

I suppose in large part I have been overly luxurious. I was rather showered in books at my birthday, but the lucky chance of cheaply acquiring the recent Bravely Default (Nintendo 3DS by SquareEnix) was surprisingly welcome. The game is very good and I recommend it to fans of classic RPGs. It turns away from Square's millenial fascination with ATB-style systems to take a trip down memory lane to turn-based, but also includes some interesting new features to take advantage of the 3DS's sleep mode, passive wireless functionality, and Augmented Reality architecture. Very good title.

--- 5 ---

In one of those never-say-never moments, I've learned I actually have some level of skill in pastries - just so long as no actual pastry is involved. My day-to-day work, until very recently, was entirely concerned in the perparation of small, bite-sized desserts. Vault 29 has me, after consulting with a few highly-qualified chefs, making their desserts-in-miniature. So I've acquired some real chops when it comes to no-bake cheesecake, fresh lemon curd, vegan desserts, chocolate mousse, panna cotta, and, of late, Key Lime Pie.

It's almost a shame that I won't be doing pastries much longer, though I never really intended to be a pastry cook forever. Still, having a section of my own to run independently and with a minimum of supervision, and rather a lot of lattitude as far as creative control, has been really, really good for the ol' mental health.

--- 6 ---

I've taken to eating breakfast again! Neat trick - if you eat breakfasts that are good cold, there's absolutely no reason not to make it the day before. Lately: Lemon Greek-Style Yogurt, Grapefruit, mini-doughnut and water.

Also, gigantic fan of random beverages - today I had the juices from a somewhat-too-juicy berry compote cut with soda water.

--- 7 ---

Apart from bravely default - of which I've played about an hour this week, I really haven't had much time for any other gaming. Any other free time has been eaten with plans for a big move that's upcoming, or recouperating from being alive with beer and books.

Lately: The Lord of the Rings, and a lovely little HP Lovecraft anthology.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Intersection of Negative Time and Negative Inspiration

Key Lime Pie Again

Truth be told, I shouldn't be writing this article.

It started with a sort of a stream-of-consciousness-type event where I was thinking to myself of ways to improve my handle times in the kitchen.

Then it morphed into political musings on some various Canadian situations that don't have much appeal outside of the fourty or so people that I know who can actually name a senator (tip: I don't know mine).

Then it sort of tapered off, and I realized I had nothing to say. I still don't have much to say, but I think that's because, by and large, I don't have much to think about.

As a general rule, whether they followed the original theme and purpose of this blog at all or not, the posts here have been about, well, something. Mostly that's because it's easier to write about something rather than nothing. Partly, it was out of a misguided attempt to brand myself as an essayist of some amateur stripe. That's not to say that the essay isn't a format that I, as a writer, have in my toolbelt. It's just not one I often use.

Truth be told, I've mostly been avoiding writing here because I don't know what to write about. I'm in a weird spot, where my ideas are all currently being picked-up, re-examined, and tested for conciseness and internal-consistancy. It's sort of like being in college all over again - in fact, it seems like every two years or so, I spend my time trying to reinvent myself, with mixed results. It leads to cool things like not wearing trenchcoats anymore or learning me some history and Latin. It also leads to a lot of stupid moments, bad hair, and experiences that leave you wondering whether you're glad you had them or not.

I think this page is going to take on a more personal tone in the weeks and months to come, since talking about such things is therapeutic whether anyone listens or not - and we all know someone who can use a little therapy.

Either way, watch this space.

Thoughts on Turning 24

Gotta Bring Back This Hair

Those who know me fairly well that my usual response when asked for my age is "Uhh...", and a vacant expression while I haul off mentally and do the math. Sometime in the last little while, I aged up, and it seems like the higher that number gets up out the teens, the less I care.

While I am (for nifty mathmatical reasons) somewhat interested in what turning twenty-five is going to look like, I simply have no real inspiration to devote any mental energy to the idea. Or any other idea.

I've written about maturity and all that before, and I'm not going to go too deeply into that, either, since it's a whole lot of pontificating, ego-stroking and amusement solely to the author. I realize that I have a relatively low readership, but since I've mostly (half-heartedly) tried to make this a weeabu all-about-my-life blog, talking about the ways I do or don't fit my (largely arbitrary) definition of maturity seems to be a faux pas.

Mostly, I haven't really had time to put my thoughts in order on the matter of my age. I haven't had the time to put my thoughts in order on anything! We're so busy at the vault, working out our kinks in scheduling and just plugging along with what the industry calls New Restaurant Syndrome - that unhappy condition of having unanticipated voids in your production process concurrent with unusually high demand for your services. It's the sort of thing that makes the days long, the batteries low, but the wallets happy.

And given a few other issues I'm not going to get directly into, keeping the wallet happy is almost always a good thing. You just can't lose your sight along the way.