Silence

broderic on February 10, 2017

Martin Scorsese’s Silence is about religion in Japan and also about faith in God. How far will one go to preach the Gospel? Are you still holy if you don’t follow the faith faithfully every day of your life?

I’ve been silent on this film for several weeks now since I saw it at the theatre back in January. It is a difficult film to understand. At first, it is a straight story about missionary priests in Japan fighting to bring the Church to a country which is actively hostile to their teachings. Then you wonder why the country is so antithetical to the religion. Is it because of how it brings hope to the lowest in society? Or is it because the Japanese at the time where prejudiced against the West?

It is a film that asks us about our faith but also about our own prejudice. Should we all be so humble in life? And so strong in our faith.

There was a character who kept failing to not renounce Christ — the Japanese doubting Thomas. To avoid persecution, he would deny that he was a believer. Yet, he kept coming back to the faith. Was he faithful or faithless?

The priests who renounced Christ, the ending revealed that maybe he was still a man of Christ. Was he faithful or faithless?

In the end, it is redemption that is available to all of Christ’s children.

3 of 5 stars.

乃木坂４６のヘビーローテ

broderic on February 6, 2017

Nogizaka46 doing a cover one of their official rivals biggest hits, “Heavy Rotation.” It’s almost all of the fukujin from the 17th Single. It’s missing my oshi, Ikuta. She’s off doing some musicals, being an actress, and getting closer to reaching her goal: musical actress.

Today is also Hoshino Minami’s birthday! I wish her a happy 19th. We need more bagels, please!

20th Century Women

broderic on February 5, 2017

Last week, I downloaded the soundtrack to 20th Century Women. It is a mix of big band, punk, New Wave, and a film score. The punk/New Wave stuff occurred in the late 70s/early 80s just as I was a kid. The film’s sound track made me remember my youth.

20th Century Woman is about a young precocious kid who lives with his carefree mom and her tenants in Santa Barbara of the late 70s. The kid lives his life amongst three women: his mom, a slightly older neighbor girl, and one the punky tenants who has survived ovarian cancer. His mom is in her forties but grew up during the war period. His neighbor is a flibbertigibbet, sleeps around, but always ends up sleeping in the kids bed. The punky tenant is living a life she wants to live. That’s how he becomes such a punk himself. The film is autobiographical take on the director’s life.

I really liked this film. I would’ve given this 5 stars, but I can’t because that rating is for films that are truly awesome. This one isn’t that awesome, but I do think it is one of the best films I’ve seen in several years. Assume that it has a 3/4 stars extra.

4 of 5 stars.

French Onion Soup

broderic on February 5, 2017

I bought a 3 lb. bag of onions a couple weeks ago for my chicken stock. I only used a couple, then I was left with a sack of onions that may be going bad in my root cellar AKA the bottom drawer of my kitchen cabinet. So I needed to use all the onions fast. The only recipe I could think of was French Onion Soup.

I’ve never made it but if its a soup its got to be easy: onions, broth, bread, and cheese. Now how to you put it all together? I took my inspiration from the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for French Onion Soup, Serious Eats’ recipe for the Best French Onion Soup, and Good Dinner Mom’s French Onion Soup.

Caramelizing the onions is the key to this soup. I followed the Pioneer Woman’s suggestion and roasted it in my dutch oven in the oven. Serious Eats is correct when they say that enameled cast iron doesn’t brown the onions. I was lucky that the sack onions was yellow onions as Good Dinner Mom recommends. So I started the onions on the stove top with a mixture of EVOO and butter.

I sliced them in my hand mandolin, threw them in the pot with some pinches of salt, and let cook for about 30 minutes. I wanted them to start going translucent while I heated the oven to 400F.

Once at that temperature I put the whole pot into the oven for a cooking time of about an hour. Half-way through I stirred the onions because they were starting to get burnt in spots.

At the end of the hour, I finished it off on the stove. I would spend another 10 minutes getting the onions to be brown. I turned off the stove and added a cup of cooking sherry to deglaze the bits and pieces stuck on the bottom of the pot. I would reduce this mixture and I added 3 gloves of minced garlic and some fresh ground black pepper. This would take another 10 minutes to reduce.

Actually, while all this was going I was heating up whatever chicken stock I had in my house. There was stock I had made a few weeks ago and I had some other in the cupboard. It was only 5 cups, so I finished it off with three extra cups of water to make it 8 cups or 2 quarts of broth. As I heated it up I added some ground pepper.

When the onions looked ready, I added the broth into the pot. I used it to deglaze the pot again so that all the good bits and pieces were in the pot. I added a few twigs of fresh thyme and a bay leaf and let it simmer for 30 minutes. I also added the secret ingredient of few dashes of fish sauce.

Grated gruyere and well toasted sourdough bread finished off the soup.

I must say the time it takes to make this soup — about 3 hours — is worth it. Hopefully, it tastes good at lunch tomorrow.

Link of the Day [2.02.17]

broderic on February 2, 2017

I’ve been reading today’s link through Google Translate. It’s a website dedicated to sakamichi series and Nogizaka46 more. It’s because they have some serious articles about my favorite idol group. Really serious articles. Enough that I wish I could read kanji enough to understand what is being said.

http://nogizaka-journal.com

Link of the Day [1.31.17]

broderic on February 1, 2017

I am a-religious at the moment, but I still adhere to some tenets of faith which I grew up in, Catholicism. I believe the current GOP practices religion in a way which goes against the preachings of Christ. They say they are Christians, but their actions mark them as not. Their blather about their religiosity is nothing but bogus talk. I don't think they understand what it means to be a follower of Christ. The current occupier of the White House even more so, because he doesn't believe in anything but himself.

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/01/28/i-was-stranger-and-you-did-not-welcome-me

Resolved [Week 05]

broderic on February 1, 2017

Here’s the post wherein I look back at the first month of my New Year’s resolutions.

It’s happening.  I’m really going forward with it, and while some of them don’t seem to come, others are going along just fine.

Health

  • Progress was swift.  I weigh 222 lbs as of yesterday.  That’s 8 lbs lost since the 1st of the year!  Perhaps I am losing it too quickly and when summer hits I will gain back the weight.  Need to keep progressing.
  • I think my blood pressure medication has flipped my measurement.  The last time I checked it was 133/85 when it used to be 124/90.  No idea how.  Need to monitor this better.

Exercise
The Apple Watch has been helpful in tracking and keeping me motivated to workout.

  • 6/5 rowing workouts.  I am trying to keep to every third day schedule.  And I ice down after every workout to keep the elbow from feeling like shit.  I need to row longer as I want to target the weight loss zone.
  • Walks: did more than 10 but they were shorter than last month.  I probably averaged around 28 minutes.
  • Stopped doing workouts besides cardio.  That 7 minute thing made me feel sad because I couldn’t even do it all.  
  • I hope it warms up enough to ride the bike.

Professional Life

  • Doing a little bit more at work.  Somewhat like a new title, but I am not pursuing it with enthusiasm.  Not sure if it’s because I don’t want to or because I don’t have to.
  • Picked up a book on node.js which is JavaScript.  May be using this at work.
Personal
  • Blogging has just been good.  By a rough count, I wrote about 20 blog posts this month and they were interesting stuff.
  • I have been cooking more, but the meals aren’t as good tasting.  Not sure why.  But I still have to eat the dish I created.
  • Japan is a bridge too far for now.  I was gung ho early on.  Now I feel the dread.  I really want to but can’t think about it for traveling alone.  Perhaps a week in Tokyo?
  • I really need to pick it up on learning Japanese, but I get too lazy about it.  I have plenty of Japanese books, but need to apply myself more.  A little rigor would do.
  • I did spend less on dining this month versus the same period last month.  It may be 25% or more.  But still it is very easy to want to drink lattes.

Good Day to You, Sir

broderic on January 29, 2017

Hello, Mr. President. Pleasant Hill Rd November 5 2016
Need to figure out a nickname for this tard. Fuck that guy.

Sadly, the sticker has been removed most likely by one of his tarded supporters. Fuck those guys, too.