Music and Roku

On weekends I sometime find myself staying up late following whatever music the You Tube suggestions take me to.  Last night it was Lindsey Stirling’s new album “Brave Enough”.  Very nice if you are fond of violin in a variety of genres.  But if you like Lindsey you’ll enjoy this album as well.  Definitely one for me to pick up off Amazon.
Other things I’ve found; well a lot actually.  From Leonard Cohen’s reading of The Sound of Silence, to Puddles and Post Modern Jukebox.
I’m a big fan of symphonic metal, especially Nightwish and Within Temptation.  Within Temptation’s concept album The Unforgiving makes its way regularly into my playlist.  Currently topping my list is Nightwish’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful.  Usually, Symphonic metal is dark and often brooding.  This is, well joyous.  The title song is all about how grand the world is and is one of the only songs I know that deals with evolution.  Its title is from a quote by Darwin. It references tiktalik, eukaryote, Panthalassa and “the shrew that survived”.  And it rocks hard.
I listen to Pandora, first pulled it up on my Roku and I find the variety it pulls into its playlists quite nice.  From it I’ve learned of Devil Doll and a handful of other rockabilly acts.  I should pay for the service and cut down on the annoying little ads, but I am a product of the radio generation, so ads are just part of listening to music.

Dice

Let’s talk about dice.
I love them, truely I do.  Of course I love fake coins too.  The wife says I have a passion for things that clatter and I can’t disagree.  I blame it all on having a button jar to play with when I was a kid.  My mother did quite a bit of sewing and playing with the button jar kept me close and busy so I didn’t get into trouble.

Whatever the reasons are, I find dice fascinating.  Perhaps it’s that desire to find the right mathematics that will allow control of a chaotic universe, but that’s drifting into esoteric territory that we won’t get into today.
Today we will discuss dice, the polyhedral variety that are used in my favorite past time Role-Playing Games.

There are two general categories of dice and they can be distinguished by the humble d4.  Old school dice are read by the number at the bottom (flat side) of the d4,  the more “modern” are the Chessex dice type which have the number at the apex of the d4.  A couple good sources of dice are Chessex and Q-Workshop. 

Jalapeños and Bacon

Fresh jalapenos (we went for the 3” or so long ones)

Onion and Chive soft cream cheese

Thick cut hickory smoked bacon (we used Oscar Meyer)

Preheat oven to 385 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut peppers in half so you get two complete “boats”. Remove seeds and membranes (leave more or less if you like heat).  A grapefruit spoon is perfect for doing this. Fill with cream cheese. Wrap with a third of a slice of bacon. You can use a toothpick to anchor or do like we did and just put the seam on the bottom on our broiler pan since it has those convenient divots.

Bake for 40 minutes (this got the bacon well-cooked but not hard and the peppers soft).   Let sit for about 5 minutes after removing from oven. Our peppers had a nice hit of spicy heat but weren’t so hot that I couldn’t snaffle them down in short order. 10 peppers make a good meal for two people, you may go for fewer if you have a side.

For a beverage you need something that can stand up to the peppers, for that we looked to Franzia Dark Red Blend – a dark red blend for their premium line.   It’s a very nice blend, not too tannic or too soft, and for around $20 for 5 liters, it’s worth a look

(Cribbed from the Wife)