Monthly Mix: NOV 2010

Forward:
At the beginning of November, I decided to participate in the famed "No Shave November." Shortly after deciding this, I realized that I don't really have the required material to look like I have lived in the woods for a month. Had I not stopped this sometimes hazardous hairy happening, I would have been arrested for being a child molester after not doing anything at all.

Before I stopped I came to the decision to take the month one step further. I decided to commit to only having one mix cd in my car stereo for the entire month!!!! This may not seem crazy to you, but for someone who is finicky with the music they listen to, this would seem insane.

I wasn't sure I would be able to do it, but I did. I thought I would hate the idea, but I don't. I actually enjoyed it. It allowed me to get to know the songs on the mix better than I already do. It also revoked the ridiculousness of removing the cd in the stereo every time I sat down to drive, if not multiple times a trip.

Here is the list of songs, in track order, for November.
#. Track Name - Artist
1.  I'll Try Anything Once (You'll Only Live Once) Demo - The Strokes
2.  I Wan It All - Sufjan Stevens
3.  Sad Prayers For Guilty Bodies - La Dispute
4.  Shiver - A Plea For Purging
5.  Pigs (feat. Jefferson Street Band) - DM Stith
6.  Mourning Glory Cloud - DM Stith
7.  Delicate (Live) - Damien Rice
8.  Me, My Yoke, and I - Damien Rice
9.  Remade Horizon - Dirty Projectors
10. Soon We'll Be Living In The Future - Straylight Run
11. Watch Me Die - Underoath
12. Abandon. - The Chariot
13. Die Interviewer (I am Only Speaking In German) - The Chariot
14. Kidz Are So Small - Deerhoof
15. Catastrophe and the Cure - Explosions In the Sky

I encourage everybody to give this a shot. Here are some ways to make this project easier:
1. Select a wide variety of genres/styles of music
2. Select songs that you like, but you have yet to over listen to.
3. Also select new things that you are unfamiliar with, get to know them; shake their hand.
4. Select songs you can sing to, not all of them, just some of them
5. Try to put them in an order that flows nicely and is pleasing to your life
6. Only make ONE copy of the mix, if you lose it or take it out and it gets damaged, tough stuff
7. Don't take too many suggestions from friends, you will end up with their favorites, not yours
8. Try not to pick more than 2 songs by the same artist, you don't want to wear them out.

More months to come
Drew Hammond

Omelet #1

Recently, I have been making some omelets every once in a while. Whenever I come home from work hungry or something. Before, I was merely using herbs or pepper or maybe some cheese. Tonight, I went crazy! 

On halloween, I ventured to Hy-Vee for candy. While there, I scanned the vegetation and found cilantro. Along with approximately 4.5 pounds of candy, my purchase was made!

At work I decided that when I would get home it was going to be omelet time. It began with the cilantro. Separated from the stems, and torn into tiny pieces, it awaited its fate. The bacon was my next target. Three strips were placed upon the skillet and cooked to as close as I could get to perfection. A brick of sharp cheddar cheese was found in my fridge, by me. Last time using a knife to cut the cheese didn't go so well. The potato peeler I used this time seemed to do the trick. With one hand, I broke the mighty shell, and dripped the eggs into the beating cup, free of shell. After the embryonic tissue was removed, THE BEATING BEGAN! 

Here are the ingredients. 

 They were broken after being cooked!

 [This is pre-beatdown.]

Once all the pieces were assembled, the cooking commenced!

The cilantro was beaten to an eggy mixture. Poured into a hot, bacon grease covered pan, and cooked for a minute or so. Once the egg-lantro started to cook, the bacon and cheese was added. Shortly after that, the omelet  took its final shape, folded. It was then cooked for another unknown amount of time with an unknown number of flips. Some sort of Ms/Mrs Dash herbs and garlic may have been added. 

Once the battle was over, this is all that remained:

That's what it was like before I ate it. Twas pretty good tasting. 

I learned that I should have more cheese, and possibly less cilantro. It wasn't quite too strong, but I think it was working on it. Also, more bacon would have been awesome. 

Please, for your own sake, make omelets or something. 

Drew Hammond

Bacteri-i

The title is pronounced bak-teer-ee-ey.

I named it that because I decided to have my first blog be a description of what it feels like to have 2 bacterial spores on the cornea. It's a great feeling. I will say though, if it it was 4mm in a different direction, I could have pending vision loss, but thankfully its not. As long as it clears up and doesn't get any larger I won't have any vision loss.

If you want to know how you can also have the pleasure of having bacteria on your cornea, just leave your contacts in for a really long time. Don't ever take them out. Just leave 'em in there, even though the doctor said to take them out once a week. You don't need to listen to him, he only went to school and studied the human eye so he could talk out of his ass.

Oh hang on, I'll be right back. I have to go put another drop in there. BRB.

Okay i'm back. Sorry that took so long. Turns out I royally suck at putting drops in my eye. Third times the charm as they say.

"These drops will kill any bacteria that comes into contact with them, so they ought to work."
The eye doctor, referring to the epic battle taking place in my eye.

For those of you who have contacts, you remember how it feels to get an eyelash caught all up in there.  That's kind of what my eye has been expressing to me for the last day and a while now. The only thing is, I can't seem to get it out of there.

I have yet to put the ointment in the "cul-de-sac" of my lower eyelid yet. (By the way, the term cul-de-sac is whats used on the prescription box. I didn't choose that one myself.) My dad says that it makes everything all blurry and gunky. Therefore, I am thoroughly excited.

All complaining and griping aside, I am extremely thankful that the little bacterias aren't on my pupil. I don't really want to have vision loss from this. It's only by God's grace that they are where they are. Also, if it seems like I am taking this sort of lightly and in a slightly comical fashion and not really stressing about it, its because I am. I know that if God wants me to lose vision in my eye, he will just do that. On the other hand, I know that if he doesn't want me to, he will make this all better. Either way, I am excited to see what happens. If you read all the way through this, I commend you. Good job, seriously.

Drew Hammond