![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
My diet is going... not badly, but not well, either. I can't seem to make myself make good choices. I can't believe how many calories everything has, and how few calories I am allowed to eat if I want to make my goal weight. WTF? I know partly that's because I don't do any exercise, which would help offset some of the calories I love to consume, but words cannot express how much I hate working out. So I'm screwed, basically.
In the last 3 weeks or so, Pinterest has suddenly rocketed into my radar. It's cropping up everywhere, including work discussions around social media. Seriously I cannot keep up with everything. I've only barely just started using StumbleUpon!Anyway, does anyone who's already on Pinterest have an invite they'd kindly like to share with me? (Thanks, ropo!)
In the last few days I watched all of Dexter S6. Dexter is one of those shows that is not must watch for me, but when I do watch it I usually have a good time.
- Commander Adama teaming up with Alex Whitman to kill a bunch of Floridians. Awesome! But not really. I just love seeing Colin Hanks, and even though I'm not crazy about Edward James Olmos, I do have a soft spot for Adama. Unfortunately, their mayhem isn't as interesting as the first few seasons.
- I was really, really shocked by the reveal that Colin was doing it the whole time. It actually made a lot of the previous (boring) stuff more interesting.
- However, I found it a little hard to believe that once confronted with what he had done, he became DETERMINED to carry out "the two witnesses" plan when there was a side of his character that had previously been trying to step away from it. It's not a "logical" break, to me. If anything, given that he was trying to break off from his dark passenger, it'd be more logical imho for him to like, kill himself. Not go, "Oh I killed the professor? Now I am REINVESTED in this task which part of me had been shying away from!"
- Now that I think about it, it makes even less sense since he was confronted with the fact -- and seemed to accept -- that he was wrong, that the professor didn't survive his attack, and so there would BE NO "two" witnesses -- just him!
- I love Quinn (I have loved Desmond Harrington since The Messenger). LOLOL "of course I'm playing the partner card! Situations like this is exactly why the partner card is in the deck!" Poor him melting down all season. I was pretty disappointed with the choice to break him and Deb up -- I thought they were good together.
- Of course, I had no way of knowing that it was because they were leading to Deb's epiphany that she was and always has been in love with DEXTER. It actually makes sense in terms of how fucked up she's always been with her relationships... but I just don't know where they're going to go from here. They either have to kill her, have her accept it, or strain the relationship between them to the point where it's untenable, and then one of the first two things probably has to happen anyway.
- I kind of wish she HAD just been pregnant, instead.
- I was shocked they went there though because they have always been SO brother/sister to me. Maybe Game of Thrones is making everyone rethink the whole issue of incest. Let's get on that bandwagon! It's hot!
- I've always thought that the one person who could never know the truth was Deb. She's so high strung, and as has been evident from the start, Dexter is the only person in her life who provides any stability or peace of mind. So for her to find out he's a serial killer would devastate her to the point of no return, I thought. BUT now that she's in love with him, maybe it won't be like that... Because women in love can forgive a lot. Not that I think she's going to be like, "this is fucked up, but we're cool" immediately, but you know.
- His having killed someone, I can see her getting past. But his being a SOCIOPATH, I don't know. Because it also means that he can't love her back. And despite all we've seen of him with Harrison and even Deb, ultimately he's unable to be a normal human being. That supposedly, it's all an act (though that's been sketchy from the start with the character and getting more so with every season). I mean, being in love with Dexter is one thing; being in love with the Bay Harbor Butcher is another. Especially since she was involved with the Ice Truck Killer... His brother, for god's sake.
- Asjade_okelani and I have been discussing, they've been playing around this season, and even maybe from the beginning, about Dexter's origins and what made him what he is. I don't buy the idea that they've been bantering around that it was Harry who MADE him what he is. But is there really such a thing as MAKING a sociopath? From what I understand about sociopaths, there IS no fixing them. It's like trying to make an autistic person not autistic -- you can really only help them cope with their 'disability.' I barely even buy their story that because Dexter saw his mom murdered at such a young age, that's what made him as he is. Can Harry really be said to have MADE Dexter into what he is? I mean, Dexter's bio brother was a sociopath too! Considering they went through the same thing and shared the same genes, that's easier to believe than that one was a natural sociopath and the other happened to be MADE INTO one. I feel strongly that to "take back" Dexter being a sociopath is...lame. I mean, other than crimes of passion, you either are a killer or you aren't. When Colin was actually Colin (when there were actually 2 DDKs), he couldn't actually kill. Same goes for the wife of the believer dude. I believe that people can be caught up in cults and what not, but that they NEED the 'leader' in order to actually be able to do and/or be part of those things, like Charles Manson's followers. But once that person is taken away, those people come to their senses and they, acting on their own, wouldn't murder. But Dexter has not had that for a long time, if ever. Those urges came from him, ever since he was young.
- Maybe in this fictional world they're saying Dexter can be 'fixed,' but that's kind of an 'easy' ending that I don't think I'd really be happy with. The whole point of the show (and the book it was based on, which I did read at some point) is the idea of a sociopath trying to fit in with normal society, while still feeding his urges, because he can't help the urges and society can't accept him as he is. So I really hope they don't do that.
- Unless Deb is killed (which I can't see them doing), or they go where I don't want them to wrt Dexter turning into a 'normal' person, I can't see her being OK with it. I mean, it's one thing to live with something he's done, in the past, but another thing to live with something he IS, in the present. Even assuming Dexter returns her feelings -- which I kind of can't see, I sort of see him as loving her like a sister, though he did make that possessive comment in his head to Quinn about how "It'll never BE you" -- if he doesn't stop killing, I can't see it working. I mean, as much as she'd be able to excuse his past away, I don't think she could live with actively knowing that he's the Bay Harbor Butcher, and occasionally goes out to kill people. Not JUST because she's a cop, but because she seems to have a strong moral compass. Then again, that didn't stop her from falling in love with her brother, so... :))
- I generally don't like the idea that they made Deb realize she loved Dexter That Way. I liked that prior to Harrison, Dexter loved someone because they were RELATED to him, that he genuinely cared about Deb because she was his sister, and not someone he was pretending to love (Rita) in order to fit in. It was also cool that they were brother and sister on TV and had such a strong bond as siblings, DESPITE not being blood related. Now I feel like, what, so all loving relationships have to turn into something involving sex?! That adopted brothers and sisters can't just see each other as brother and sister? That because they're not blood related, sex is naturally on the table? I don't like that part of it.
- I really cannot see Dexter loving Deb back in that way. To him, she's his sister and that's it. Nothing he's done or said has positively indicated that he could possibly feel that way about her. Other than, you know, the fact that he cares about her at all. Which is supposed to be a big deal because of him being a sociopath -- but if he's not actually a sociopath, then it's not a big deal at all. It was huge when he wouldn't let Brian kill her.
- Despite what they did with Rita, I can't see them being brave enough to kill Deb. But who knows, maybe they will, since they know they only have 2 seasons anyway (supposedly). Now that she knows Dexter's secret, I figure she has to die and/or that her feelings of being in love with him will die a sudden death. That's assuming she'll find out he's a serial killer, and not that he's going to hide/convince her that Colin was his first and only victim. I'm assuming that she'll see how meticulously he planned everything and realize that it definitely wasn't his first time, but who knows. It's all totally up in the air.
- I missed Masuka this season. He was seriously sidelined, and only had like 2 quotable one-liners all season!
I made a delicious pasta the other night. It's like, my mom and mine's absolute favorite. Anyway, while I was using my mandoline to slice mushrooms I got over zealous and totally sliced into my thumb. It was fairly deep and bled a lot (ewwwwww). I've never actually cut myself on the mandoline before, because I am usually super anally careful, as mandolines are notorious for cutting people. Sigh, first time for everything. Anyway, I want to share the recipe for the pasta, even though there are no photos because it was devoured too quickly. It's actually a recipe that I adapted from D., K.'s husband.
Note: This serves two people if the two people are me and my mom. It would probably serve 4 normal eaters. >.>
D.'s Pasta
Ingredients:
- 5oz. kale, washed and trimmed (I almost always get Trader Joe's packaged kale, which comes washed, trimmed, and in smaller pieces)
- 10 strips of julienned sun-dried tomatoes (again, TJ's)
- 5 dried red chilies
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed or sliced
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 4oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced (carefully :P)
- 8oz. dried pasta (best with long noodles like linguine - my fave - or spaghetti)
- 7oz. can of minced clams in clam juice
Method:
1) If you're planning ahead, soak the sundried tomatoes in the olive oil. Not a huge deal if you can't. In the meanwhile, heat a large pot of water for your pasta and follow the directions to cook it al dente. If you like your pasta super al dente, time it so that you remove it with still a minute or two to go, as it will continue to cook when you add it to everything else, later. I like my pasta just over al dente, so I follow the package directions and by the time it's ready to eat, it's perfect.
2) Run your knife through the kale. You just want to slice into smaller pieces, about 1/2-inch or so, doesn't need to be exact. I've minced it before and that was overkill.
3) Heat a large pan with high sides. Add the olive oil. When it's hot but not smoking, add the dried chilies and garlic and fry for a bit. You don't want the garlic to brown, so keep stirring for about 30 seconds. Add the sundried tomatoes.
4) Add the kale and mix well, so that all the leaves are shiny and bright green. Cook for another minute or two, then add the mushrooms. Again, stir fry well so that the mushrooms start to take on a moist appearance. Add salt to taste.
5) Toss in the minced clams, juice and all. Turn up the heat so that the juice is boiling... you want most of the liquid to evaporate but leave its delicious clam essence behind. Keep stirring everything so that it cooks evenly. (Once the pasta is done you can't even tell the clams are in there, they're like the secret behind the deliciousness that no one can figure out.)
6) Right before you're going to add the pasta, pick out the dried chilies. Remember how many you put in and make sure you take out that many, or someone's going to have an unpleasant surprise while they're eating, lol. They should be easily distinguishable from the sundried tomatoes, which by this point will have cooked into a more pinkish color.
7) Once you've done that, the pasta should JUST be ready (don't let it sit around cooked). Ladle the pasta directly from the pot, or drain it then add. Mix it well with the kale and mushroom mixture, making sure everything's as evenly distributed as possible.
8) Divide the pasta into bowls and top with freshly grated parmesan. DELISH.
In the last 3 weeks or so, Pinterest has suddenly rocketed into my radar. It's cropping up everywhere, including work discussions around social media. Seriously I cannot keep up with everything. I've only barely just started using StumbleUpon!
ropo!)In the last few days I watched all of Dexter S6. Dexter is one of those shows that is not must watch for me, but when I do watch it I usually have a good time.
- Commander Adama teaming up with Alex Whitman to kill a bunch of Floridians. Awesome! But not really. I just love seeing Colin Hanks, and even though I'm not crazy about Edward James Olmos, I do have a soft spot for Adama. Unfortunately, their mayhem isn't as interesting as the first few seasons.
- I was really, really shocked by the reveal that Colin was doing it the whole time. It actually made a lot of the previous (boring) stuff more interesting.
- However, I found it a little hard to believe that once confronted with what he had done, he became DETERMINED to carry out "the two witnesses" plan when there was a side of his character that had previously been trying to step away from it. It's not a "logical" break, to me. If anything, given that he was trying to break off from his dark passenger, it'd be more logical imho for him to like, kill himself. Not go, "Oh I killed the professor? Now I am REINVESTED in this task which part of me had been shying away from!"
- Now that I think about it, it makes even less sense since he was confronted with the fact -- and seemed to accept -- that he was wrong, that the professor didn't survive his attack, and so there would BE NO "two" witnesses -- just him!
- I love Quinn (I have loved Desmond Harrington since The Messenger). LOLOL "of course I'm playing the partner card! Situations like this is exactly why the partner card is in the deck!" Poor him melting down all season. I was pretty disappointed with the choice to break him and Deb up -- I thought they were good together.
- Of course, I had no way of knowing that it was because they were leading to Deb's epiphany that she was and always has been in love with DEXTER. It actually makes sense in terms of how fucked up she's always been with her relationships... but I just don't know where they're going to go from here. They either have to kill her, have her accept it, or strain the relationship between them to the point where it's untenable, and then one of the first two things probably has to happen anyway.
- I kind of wish she HAD just been pregnant, instead.
- I was shocked they went there though because they have always been SO brother/sister to me. Maybe Game of Thrones is making everyone rethink the whole issue of incest. Let's get on that bandwagon! It's hot!
- I've always thought that the one person who could never know the truth was Deb. She's so high strung, and as has been evident from the start, Dexter is the only person in her life who provides any stability or peace of mind. So for her to find out he's a serial killer would devastate her to the point of no return, I thought. BUT now that she's in love with him, maybe it won't be like that... Because women in love can forgive a lot. Not that I think she's going to be like, "this is fucked up, but we're cool" immediately, but you know.
- His having killed someone, I can see her getting past. But his being a SOCIOPATH, I don't know. Because it also means that he can't love her back. And despite all we've seen of him with Harrison and even Deb, ultimately he's unable to be a normal human being. That supposedly, it's all an act (though that's been sketchy from the start with the character and getting more so with every season). I mean, being in love with Dexter is one thing; being in love with the Bay Harbor Butcher is another. Especially since she was involved with the Ice Truck Killer... His brother, for god's sake.
- As
jade_okelani and I have been discussing, they've been playing around this season, and even maybe from the beginning, about Dexter's origins and what made him what he is. I don't buy the idea that they've been bantering around that it was Harry who MADE him what he is. But is there really such a thing as MAKING a sociopath? From what I understand about sociopaths, there IS no fixing them. It's like trying to make an autistic person not autistic -- you can really only help them cope with their 'disability.' I barely even buy their story that because Dexter saw his mom murdered at such a young age, that's what made him as he is. Can Harry really be said to have MADE Dexter into what he is? I mean, Dexter's bio brother was a sociopath too! Considering they went through the same thing and shared the same genes, that's easier to believe than that one was a natural sociopath and the other happened to be MADE INTO one. I feel strongly that to "take back" Dexter being a sociopath is...lame. I mean, other than crimes of passion, you either are a killer or you aren't. When Colin was actually Colin (when there were actually 2 DDKs), he couldn't actually kill. Same goes for the wife of the believer dude. I believe that people can be caught up in cults and what not, but that they NEED the 'leader' in order to actually be able to do and/or be part of those things, like Charles Manson's followers. But once that person is taken away, those people come to their senses and they, acting on their own, wouldn't murder. But Dexter has not had that for a long time, if ever. Those urges came from him, ever since he was young.- Maybe in this fictional world they're saying Dexter can be 'fixed,' but that's kind of an 'easy' ending that I don't think I'd really be happy with. The whole point of the show (and the book it was based on, which I did read at some point) is the idea of a sociopath trying to fit in with normal society, while still feeding his urges, because he can't help the urges and society can't accept him as he is. So I really hope they don't do that.
- Unless Deb is killed (which I can't see them doing), or they go where I don't want them to wrt Dexter turning into a 'normal' person, I can't see her being OK with it. I mean, it's one thing to live with something he's done, in the past, but another thing to live with something he IS, in the present. Even assuming Dexter returns her feelings -- which I kind of can't see, I sort of see him as loving her like a sister, though he did make that possessive comment in his head to Quinn about how "It'll never BE you" -- if he doesn't stop killing, I can't see it working. I mean, as much as she'd be able to excuse his past away, I don't think she could live with actively knowing that he's the Bay Harbor Butcher, and occasionally goes out to kill people. Not JUST because she's a cop, but because she seems to have a strong moral compass. Then again, that didn't stop her from falling in love with her brother, so... :))
- I generally don't like the idea that they made Deb realize she loved Dexter That Way. I liked that prior to Harrison, Dexter loved someone because they were RELATED to him, that he genuinely cared about Deb because she was his sister, and not someone he was pretending to love (Rita) in order to fit in. It was also cool that they were brother and sister on TV and had such a strong bond as siblings, DESPITE not being blood related. Now I feel like, what, so all loving relationships have to turn into something involving sex?! That adopted brothers and sisters can't just see each other as brother and sister? That because they're not blood related, sex is naturally on the table? I don't like that part of it.
- I really cannot see Dexter loving Deb back in that way. To him, she's his sister and that's it. Nothing he's done or said has positively indicated that he could possibly feel that way about her. Other than, you know, the fact that he cares about her at all. Which is supposed to be a big deal because of him being a sociopath -- but if he's not actually a sociopath, then it's not a big deal at all. It was huge when he wouldn't let Brian kill her.
- Despite what they did with Rita, I can't see them being brave enough to kill Deb. But who knows, maybe they will, since they know they only have 2 seasons anyway (supposedly). Now that she knows Dexter's secret, I figure she has to die and/or that her feelings of being in love with him will die a sudden death. That's assuming she'll find out he's a serial killer, and not that he's going to hide/convince her that Colin was his first and only victim. I'm assuming that she'll see how meticulously he planned everything and realize that it definitely wasn't his first time, but who knows. It's all totally up in the air.
- I missed Masuka this season. He was seriously sidelined, and only had like 2 quotable one-liners all season!
I made a delicious pasta the other night. It's like, my mom and mine's absolute favorite. Anyway, while I was using my mandoline to slice mushrooms I got over zealous and totally sliced into my thumb. It was fairly deep and bled a lot (ewwwwww). I've never actually cut myself on the mandoline before, because I am usually super anally careful, as mandolines are notorious for cutting people. Sigh, first time for everything. Anyway, I want to share the recipe for the pasta, even though there are no photos because it was devoured too quickly. It's actually a recipe that I adapted from D., K.'s husband.
Note: This serves two people if the two people are me and my mom. It would probably serve 4 normal eaters. >.>
D.'s Pasta
Ingredients:
- 5oz. kale, washed and trimmed (I almost always get Trader Joe's packaged kale, which comes washed, trimmed, and in smaller pieces)
- 10 strips of julienned sun-dried tomatoes (again, TJ's)
- 5 dried red chilies
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed or sliced
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 4oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced (carefully :P)
- 8oz. dried pasta (best with long noodles like linguine - my fave - or spaghetti)
- 7oz. can of minced clams in clam juice
Method:
1) If you're planning ahead, soak the sundried tomatoes in the olive oil. Not a huge deal if you can't. In the meanwhile, heat a large pot of water for your pasta and follow the directions to cook it al dente. If you like your pasta super al dente, time it so that you remove it with still a minute or two to go, as it will continue to cook when you add it to everything else, later. I like my pasta just over al dente, so I follow the package directions and by the time it's ready to eat, it's perfect.
2) Run your knife through the kale. You just want to slice into smaller pieces, about 1/2-inch or so, doesn't need to be exact. I've minced it before and that was overkill.
3) Heat a large pan with high sides. Add the olive oil. When it's hot but not smoking, add the dried chilies and garlic and fry for a bit. You don't want the garlic to brown, so keep stirring for about 30 seconds. Add the sundried tomatoes.
4) Add the kale and mix well, so that all the leaves are shiny and bright green. Cook for another minute or two, then add the mushrooms. Again, stir fry well so that the mushrooms start to take on a moist appearance. Add salt to taste.
5) Toss in the minced clams, juice and all. Turn up the heat so that the juice is boiling... you want most of the liquid to evaporate but leave its delicious clam essence behind. Keep stirring everything so that it cooks evenly. (Once the pasta is done you can't even tell the clams are in there, they're like the secret behind the deliciousness that no one can figure out.)
6) Right before you're going to add the pasta, pick out the dried chilies. Remember how many you put in and make sure you take out that many, or someone's going to have an unpleasant surprise while they're eating, lol. They should be easily distinguishable from the sundried tomatoes, which by this point will have cooked into a more pinkish color.
7) Once you've done that, the pasta should JUST be ready (don't let it sit around cooked). Ladle the pasta directly from the pot, or drain it then add. Mix it well with the kale and mushroom mixture, making sure everything's as evenly distributed as possible.
8) Divide the pasta into bowls and top with freshly grated parmesan. DELISH.
