I’ve spent the summer in SF working to launch www.wikinvest.com, the Wikipedia for investing. Check it out! There is a lot of interesting content up there already.
I’m particularly excited about the opportunity to help people invest more conceptually. There is a lot thinking to do beyond the statistics and I think wikinvest.com is a step in the right direction for investing.
My partner, Jill, and I have just started our own tango teaching business! Check out www.viridiantango.com for details.
Today in Seattle, Washington there was a demonstration that was expected to involve thousands of people and cause considerable traffic delays and other obstructions along the route. The purpose of the demonstration was immigration reform, but that is not what I am concerned with here.
What bothers me is that, so long as no property is damaged and no one is injured, people will consider this demonstration to be peaceful. Am I being peaceful if I stand in the street in front of your driveway and do not allow you to park your car? No. I am using a form of physical coercion against you. It is no different when thousands of people do it simultaneously.
Looking for a meal that is easy to make, works well as left-overs and is healthy I turned to a yummy dish my Mom used to make: rice pilaf.
I have never, before now, tried making rice pilaf on my own. A quick internet search revealed lots of different recipes so I decided to ignore them all. A quick call home gave me a basic outline and off I went.
Brown the meat (I’ve been using chicken) along with onions and peppers.
Add seasoning.
Add rice and water.
Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Add any additional vegetables.
Simmer for another 10 minutes, or until all of the water is gone (I do this step uncovered).
Yep. That’s it.
The only important measurement is the water to rice ratio and, to be honest, I don’t have that worked out yet. It depends on the kind of rice you’re using and how much liquid is already in the pot (e.g. from meat juices) when the rice is added. I’ve found that, for Thai jasmine brown rice and chicken, you want the water:rice to be about 1:1. My Mom’s recipe called for 2:1, water:rice.
So far, on the seasoning front, I’ve tried:
They were very different but I enjoyed both of them.
What I love best about this dish is that I have been able to make two very tasty dishes without following a recipe. There is a satisfaction in such cooking that is utterly lacking when I follow a recipe carefully, line-by-line.
Despite being rather tired and having endured a fairly thorough back and biceps workout, I decided to venture out to the China Harbor milonga tonight. Am I ever glad that I did.
This is the first milonga or practica that I’ve been to with Henri as a DJ. I’m thoroughly impressed. He played strictly classical music and I enjoyed every tanda. I’ll definitely have to watch for where he is DJing in the future.
From the beautiful music came very enjoyable dancing. I wasn’t pushing my vocabulary, mostly just enjoying the music and playing with it where I could. This felt great. Hopefully I’ll learn my lesson, calm down and really enjoy the music more often now.
Bumper stickers seem to be a popular decoration here in Seattle. Normally, I find their contents range from silly to illogical and slanderous. There is, however, the occasional polite, thoughtful and well-written specimen if you have the patience to continue paying attention to them.
I was driving behind one of the latter today. It read “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”
I couldn’t see this on the sticker, but a bit of research (i.e. googling) suggests this is a quote by Maggie Kuhn.
Hooray for Maggie Kuhn and all of us shy people out there 
This past weekend, Jillian and I went down to Portland for the annual ValenTango festival.
Yum.
On the workshop front, the highlights for me were the material and teaching style presented by Korey Ireland (accompanied by his lovely and very expressive partner Mila Vigdorova) and the ideas about the fundamentals of walking presented by Nick Jones and Tara Fortier. More on this to come soon, after I’ve had some additional time to mull it over.
As for the dancing, the highlight of the weekend was definitely the Grande ValenTango Ball. It was truly magical, a word I would almost never use but actually is deserved here. The ambience of live music, an expansive ballroom, beautiful company and me finally becoming slightly comfortable at a large milonga combined to keep me smiling all night long.
I think I’ve reached the hieght of my tango inspiration. The good news is, I can see it continuing up from here.
This weekend I decided that I would spoil myself and order some good quality speakers that would accept my iPod. I ended up choosing these:
They arrived today (care of my free two-day shipping with my trial Amazon Prime membership) and so far I have been thoroughly impressed by them.
The sound is very clear and crisp. Especially the bass, which is very enjoyably crisp and not over-powering as it was with my last set of Altec Lansing speakers. They comfortably fill my entire one-bedroom apartment with sound. In fact, I haven’t dared increase the volume to the point where I notice any distortion, as I’m sure my neighbours would be quite annoyed.
Best features:
Two minor gripes:
I would highly recommend these to anyone out there that is looking for a new set of speakers, whether or not you own an iPod (the unit accepts aux in).
I read this article on the lead/follow relationship in Tango the other day:
http://tangomoments.com/ATango-why-gndr.htm
If you can get past all of the Eastern mysticism, there is an interesting idea: both partners are, in a sense, sharing the roles of leader and follower.
I have often heard that the leader must “wait” for the follower, particularily during ganchos and sacadas, but I have never thought about it in the context of a role-reversal. I’m interested to see if this new perspective will be helpful.
Just one more reason to find a beginner class I can take as a follow.
Help Defend Freedom in Canada
April 10th, 2006 by bryeungWestern Standard is facing a lawsuit in response to their choice to publish the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.
The lawsuit was filed through the Human Rights Commission, which means that it is being financed by Canadian tax payers and, even if the suit is dismissed, Western Standard will not be compensated for their legal costs.
If you value freedom in Canada, I urge you to support Western Standard in this battle by donating to the Western Standard Legal Defence Fund.
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