It’s hard to believe that I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks. I started working again after a long hiatus, and I have hardly had the time to collect my thoughts. For the same reason, not much has happened in my life and now that I told myself to blog, I am almost at a loss for a subject – except food, since I at least feed myself while working.

I learned about “Haluski” from flipping through the Food Network late at night, in an episode of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (a terrible show to watch late at night, by the way). The recipe from the featured restaurant was something relatively fancy, but it is supposed to be a simple food from Eastern Europe, with all the staples of the region like cabbage and pasta.

The version I made shortly after, proved to be too simple and delicious not to tell someone about. It is literally a young man’s best friend, requiring no cooking skills but passing for a unique and decent meal. Here’s the recipe:

• Pasta – originally egg noodles, but elbow macaroni or ziti works well enough.
• Bacon – also, originally pancetta, but who cares?
• Onions
• Cabbage
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the pasta al dente (10-12 minutes).
2. Chop bacon into small pieces, and julienne onions and cabbage.
3. Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry bacon and vegetables over medium-high heat.
4. Stir in the pasta, applying salt and pepper to taste.

Done! I hear a fancy Haluski also consists of green peas, capers, carrots and assorted herbs, but if you’re looking for something quick to fill your stomach with (and doesn’t make you feel like you just ate solely for filling up your stomach), then this is your golden ticket. It truly is the dish of the proleteriat. And with that (and a glass of Glenmorangie, which I’ll have to write about sometime), good night.

Courtesy of xkcd.com

I’ve been wanting to blog about this fantastic web-comic for a long time. Ever since my friend found it on the web, I have been wasting a copious amount of time browsing through its archives (I still haven’t finished reading them). Though minimalist in appearance, the contents of XKCD hit every spot in a nerd’s penchant… though I like to consider myself a very different type of nerd from those who dress up for Matrix, read all the Star Wars novels or learn Klingon. Filled with hilariously esoteric jokes spanning fields of physics, chemistry, high-level mathematics (like cryptography), Linux computing, programming, and web design, XKCD is the ultimate website for those who enjoy the “hey I get that joke!” moments.

Until I stumbled on the site, I had no idea that over the 24 years of my life, I have acquired ridiculously obscure skill & knowledge sets (the only jokes I don’t get are the Linux ones…and it’s making me want to learn it). Granted, I majored in chemistry and minored in math, and I do web design now, but bully, am I a nerd.

The above was one of my favorites from its archives, expanding on a hopelessly esoteric subject of SQL injection. Also, make sure to read the mouseover texts (or as web designers call them, “title” attributes).

Dooly is a beloved cartoon character from my native Korea. He is a dinosaur from space that crash-landed on earth, forever on search for a way to get back to his mother. I was bored the other day and got on my WACOM, thinking about painting a scenery like I usually do. Once I started painting green, though, I ended up painting a serious-looking version of Dooly before I knew it.