Tag: books

Trying to enjoy life one day at a time

Well, after taking some time to process it, I guess I can go ahead and say (officially) that I am not going to the police academy this year.  I just wasn’t high enough on the list, I guess.  But the people involved in the process have been highly encouraging and supportive towards me, and so I will make another effort whenever they put together another class, either later this year or early next year.

In the meantime, it has been a humbling experience to get back into the job hunt full-time.  And to be honest, a little depressing.  But since I am Mr. Silver Lining, I am trying to find the bright side of the experience and move on.

So there’s a few things I am doing to keep myself entertained while I continue the (seemingly eternal) job hunt.

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Thoughts on winter in New England

A lot of people hate winter, especially after so many days and nights of snow and cold temperatures.  People complain bitterly about it and pray for spring to get here faster.

I am not one of them.  I like winter, and I believe in addition to the bad it has much good.  Just like any other season.  But here in New England it is a very distinct season, and not watered down at all.  You get beautiful winter scenes like no other.

That’s one of the things I love most about New England: it has seasons.  Four very different, very distinct seasons.

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Medieval mutton stew, slightly modified

Great stew for a cold winter's eve.
Great stew for a cold winter’s eve.

I used the mutton stew recipe I mentioned yesterday to make this, but I did make one change: I added yellow carrots, which would certainly have been known in Europe by the late middle ages.  Orange would not become the typical carrot color for a few more centuries.  Red would also have been common, but those are a little more difficult to come by these days, at least outside of a farmer’s market full of heirloom gardeners.  It just felt like the stew needed something besides meat, an egg, and seasoning.

Note to self: get a better background for medieval cooking photos.

-Geoff

More medieval cooking on a snowy winter’s eve

This week has become one snow event after another, and we are starting to actually run out of places to put the snow when we shovel.  There are really only two piles: the big one on the other side of our trash and recycling bins, between them and the neighbor’s fence; and the small one in this little corner between the steps and the house, where there is a stump I want dead anyway.  So the little pile is getting close to its maximum practical size, and the other one has reached the height of the bushes.  And trying to chip away all the melted, compacted snow that had refrozen as ice all over the walk and steps took almost an hour of hard work.  Thirty degrees outside and I was sweating.

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Winter is coming (back)

It looks like today will be the last “balmy” day for a while, insofar as the temperature was well above freezing most of the day.  Starting tonight temperatures will begin to drop, and they are predicted to not go above freezing for a good while – possibly as long as two weeks.  And we will probably get more snow too, starting tomorrow night.  So enjoy today, Boston, but prepare to be cooped up inside for a while.  You aren’t going to want to spend a lot of time outside after today.  So go grab some DVDs from the library or Netflix or whatever and catch up on your favorite show or shows.  You might have some free time in the near future.   Or if you are like me, grab a stack of books.  It will be a good time to curl up with that monster George R.R. Martin book with a cup of something hot to drink and some small furry companions at your side.

-Geoff

Heraldry, history and ASOIAF/GoT

As dumb as it sounds, one of the things I love about George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the heraldry.  Specifically, the house sigils, as they are more commonly known, are some of the most iconic things about the show.  Of course Martin based this on medieval heraldry practices that, at least technically, still exist to this day.  Plenty of families have coats of arms, as do cities, towns, universities and colleges, etc.  And the central part of any coat of arms is usually a shield of some sort.  In the world of ASOIAF these tend to be fairly simple (the direwolf of House Stark, both the HBO version and book-ish version) although a few do get more complex (like House Tarth, HBO version and book-ish version).   And GRRM goes to a lot of trouble to describe the sigils of a great many houses in ASOIAF.  To give you an idea of the sheer amount of creative calories burned, check out the Heraldry page at the Citadel website and this awesome Westeros map some uber-geeks put together.  I totally geeked out about both of those.

Well, Kelly and I decided a while back to make our own sigil (in true geek fashion) and now I will share it with the world via the Intertubes.  A lot of people did something similar with the “Join the Realm” promo web page done by HBO for Game of Thrones.  But I wanted to do our own, with symbols that meant something to both Kelly and me.

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Dachshund winter activities

I bet you are thinking I am going to talk about dachshunds in the snow and such.  Well, you don’t know much about our dachshunds, then.  When it’s ridiculously cold outside, like it is now, just getting the dogs out to do their business can be a trial, especially if precipitation is in progress.  So most of their winter activities consist of a) trying to stay warm, b) trying to get more food than they are normally allowed, and c) sleeping.  Frequently a) and c) are combined.

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Pork pie – for vegetarians

I promised I would post a picture if I managed to make anything that came out reasonably tasty, and so here you go.  This is the Pork Pie recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire, but made with a “Ground Sausage” from one of those companies that make meat substitutes.  It came out delicious, despite my inability to do the top crust correctly (hopefully do better next time).

If Samwell could fly, he'd be back at Castle Black having a slice of this.
If Samwell could fly, he’d be back at Castle Black having a slice of this.

Anyway, I think I might try something else this week.

Happy Thankgiving everyone!  And happy Hannukah too!

-Geoff

 

The Joy of Medieval Cooking

Thanksgiving is next week, and for those of us who love to cook, this is one of the absolute best times of year.  And ever since I decided to explore medieval cuisine, I have been wanting to try new dishes, and so I have been collecting books on the subject (and not just Chelsea and Sariann’s awesome Game of Thrones cookbook).  Thank goodness for ABE Books, or else I would never have been able to find many of these, or afford them once I did find them.

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History coming to the big screen next year

Nathaniel Philbrick is one of my favorite historians.  I especially love his superb maritime history books.  And it turns out that one of his books is being made into a movie.  Heart of the Sea is based on his book In the Heart of the Sea, in which Philbrick recounts the story of the Essex, a whaleship that was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820, far out in the Pacific Ocean.  Its crew was stranded in small boats for several months until they were rescued and in the meantime they had been forced to commit cannibalism.  The disaster served as inspiration for Herman Melville, who used it and his own experience on a whaler to help him create the novel Moby Dick.

The film, directed by Ron Howard, is set to be released sometime in 2014.   And there are at least three actors from Game of Thrones that are also in this film: Joseph Mawle (Benjen Stark); Donald Sumpter (Maester Luwin); and Jamie Sives (Jory Cassel).  Good Northmen all, and all dead, sadly.*  So that frees them up to be in this film.  I am looking forward to it.

-Geoff

*Technically, Benjen Stark is missing, but let’s just say that it isn’t looking good for him to be alive at this point.