Falling behind

I don't feel like I've been all that busy the past week, but I suppose I have been. Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I won't get back in gear until this weekend, probably, because this week is also slightly busy. I have class Tuesday and Thursday from 4-7, and a kickball game Wednesday night.

Speaking of which, did I even mention that I'm taking a class? It's sponsored by my work and the University of New Hampshire, and it's a course in Software Systems Engineering. Yes, it's about as exciting as it sounds — not. The class is a real college course, so it's 3 hours once a week with a midterm and a final, and it goes through mid-December. I regret signing up for it; my mind does not want to be in any sort of school-mode. Oh well, I'll survive.

I made another recipe last night, shrimp scampi. It was good, but I don't think I cooked it as well as I could have. It's a learning process, I suppose. Now that I look at the comments on that recipe website, I do agree that it could have used some lemon and butter. Also, there was a tip about letting the floured shrimp sit in the fridge for a bit; that might have helped the flour stick to the shrimp better when sautéing. I haven't decided on my next recipe, but I'm feeling something steaky. Perhaps a skirt steak salad? Mmm, sounds good.

THIS GUY IS CRAZY

A climb up the tallest tower @ Yahoo! Video

Don't be a dummy, hack your VCR!

French senate approves the "burqa ban"

Something about this ban rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's the fact that it's completely hypocritical.

The French claim that burqas represent a society in which women have no rights, and they want to separate themselves from that. And yet, they feel that the solution to this is take away a woman's right to wear a burqa. Am I the only one that thinks this is crazy? Apparently I'm a minority in France:

The ban has strong public support, but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

That's nice, but if it's only a tiny minority to begin with, then why are they so gung-ho to ban it outright? What if a woman wants to wear a burqa? I cannot claim to understand why they would, but I'm also not a Muslim woman so I can't say that it isn't possible. I'm sure there is a fair percentage of full veil-wearing women in France who are doing so out of choice. In fact, many people do things that make sense to them and few others because of their faith. There are Mormons in America that refuse to see rated R movies. What does that have to do with your faith? Since I'm not Mormon, I can't understand. Yet, you don't see anyone moving to ban any Mormon practices.

However, if the law passes, women who choose to wear a burqa will have this to look forward to:

It envisages fines of 150 euros (£119) for women who break the law

Well done, France.

[BBC - French senate votes to ban Islamic full veil in public]

Think of the Miners

Click for the full-sized version. Thanks to Andy for the link.

One recipe a week

I haven't done much cooking lately, but I think it's time to get back into gear.

I'm going to pick a random recipe every week and make it, starting this week. I'm going to start off with Grilled Chicken w/ Chipotle-Peach glaze. Let's see how that goes, shall we? If you have any recipes to share, feel free to leave a comment (even if it's some future, unrelated blog entry!).

Oh, and New Hampshire was nice. I didn't have much of an opportunity to do anything except go to my training, but the weather as at least fairly pleasant.

off to New Hampshire

Today I fly out to New Hampshire for a few days for United Way training. Luckily for me, I will [mostly] get to miss the fun tropical storm weather.

I'll be back Friday evening. See you then!