Mmm pasta

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Alan V

Edit: Life has another update. Yay life.

I was bored so I tried my hand at making fresh pasta today. It was much easier than I was expecting and turned into tasty shrimp linguini.

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
8 precooked shrimp
1/4 onion, chopped
Spices to taste
Dash of olive oil
Vodka sauce (or other sauce, if preferred)

Mix flour and salt with one whole egg and one egg white. Knead thoroughly until uniform. Dough will be a little sticky, but it should stretch easily and not break. Cover working area in flour and roll out dough one half at a time until really, really thin (this will take a while… took me about an hour to roll out all of the dough). Cut into strips of desired width.

In a pot, stir chopped onion and spices in a dash of olive oil until cooked. Add shrimp and cook until hot. Set aside.

Boil pasta for 3-4 minutes or until tender and chewy. Drain and immediately toss with a bit of Vodka sauce. Cover with additional Vodka sauce and shrimp/onion mixture. Serves 2.

Om nom nom nom. I could have made the sauce from scratch too, but meh. Good sauce is often more expensive to make from scratch, especially if you buy stuff like Classico on uber-sale.

Also, I need to buy a rolling pin. I rolled out the pasta with an empty glass bottle.

Photo Firsts (Howard, Avery)

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Alan V

Life has gotten another update, which completes Sophomore year and my “break” before starting my PSLC internship (and the summer of epic angst and sadness). Whee.
Edit: I was bored, so I finished up through July 2006. It’s amazing how little of what actually happened that summer actually made it into photographs (I mean, the events and stuff made it in, but the summer was an emotional pit of doom that really doesn’t come across from anything I shot those few months). It’s also amazing how many of my photos weren’t of people… I think it was my first (and, really, only) period of primarily still lifes and landscapes. Whee. Also, going through the photos again made me remember how much I hated my roommate. Le sigh.

Here’s my first photo of Howard:

August 24, 2004 in the room of our RA, Christine. (In our RA, Christine’s, room? Is that proper grammar?)
Since that’s the back of his head, here’s a better photo from the same day.

Here’s my first photo of Avery:

August 27, 2004 in the Mudge TV Lounge.
I think Avery also wins the award for “most changed” since he looks completely, completely different now (and also changed his look many times throughout the years).

Here’s stats for them both. This is hilarious.

August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 661
January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 36
June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 129
January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 35
June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 4
August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 0
January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 14
June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 35
January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 3
June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
January 1, 2009 to present: 0

August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 640
January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 20
June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 2
January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 2
June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 7
January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 9
June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 2
January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 4
June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
January 1, 2009 to present: 0

I think the stats are a fairly good indicator of how often I hang out with people, since I tend to carry my camera with me everywhere (although, from stats of the Fairfax group and stats by semester, it looks like photos generally dropped off second semester, so it might be more accurate to compare these as percentages).

Headphones!

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Alan V

I ordered these headphones today.
Yay headphones. Let’s hope they’re worth the price.

Went to see Watchmen with the Sites team today. I don’t think I really liked it… the ending was really good (and unexpected) and they developed the characters well, but the beginning of the movie stretched on too long for my tastes. Also, the movie had a lot of graphic violence that, in my opinion, was unnecessary. I dunno. I don’t recommend seeing it in theaters because movies there are way too overpriced, but you should see it on video if you don’t mind a lot of blood and gore (like cleavers to the head, exploding people, chopping off of arms, etc).

Justin and Harry were over for games tonight, which was fun. I was close to winning the game of Settlers, but Harry took away longest road the turn before I could win. Oh well.

Yay life.