I am something of a riotologist. I love rioting. I follow rioting stories very closely and I am very fascinated by the possibility of a serious riot happening somewhere in the US in the coming years. The problem with America, though, is that we are too complacent, we will demonstrate like nobody's business, but rarely do things ever explode into violence (though when they do they are pretty epic). So I usually have to look elsewhere to find good riot stories. The rest of the world, however, isn't comprised of a bunch of pussies, and 2008 was a vintage year for rioting.

1. World-wide Food Rioting
According to Wikipedia: "The price rises affected parts of Asia and Africa particularly severely with Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal, Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt and Morocco seeing protests and riots in late 2007 and early 2008 over the unavailability of basic food staples. Other countries which have seen food riots or are facing related unrest are: Mexico, Bolivia, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and South Africa."



I'm going to go as far as to include all that rioting in Zimbabwe as Food Rioting, because while the situation there is not rooted in a sustenance based conflict, famine and rising price of imported foods did not help the situation at all. Thank you biofuels and mother earth for making this year a particularly bad year for keeping people fed. As you can see rioting was documented in various African regions, in Central and South Asia and in select parts of Latin America, so this is a pretty global issue, and hopefully the situation gets better in 2009 or we could see a real melt-down of the third world in the next five years.



2. Greek December Rioting
After the police shot 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the entire nation's youth as it would seem went apeshit and just starting destroying and looting everything they could find a la the Los Angelos/Cincinnati race riots of the 1990s. Sparked a wave of international protests at Greek consulates and embassies world-wide and massive destruction of property in Athens and beyond. Couple po-po got torched with Molotov cocktails and greek graffiti has always been sweet so thats why the Greek Riots get the #2 spot this year. There are also still demonstrations going on that could potentially erupt into rioting so watch for this in the news (it'll be there).

You can find a ton of photographs of this sweet riot here.

3. Tibetan Olympic Rioting


China sucks at dealing with the non-Han peoples within their borders. They pretty much actively persecute ethnic groups in the ethnic groups's homeland provinces. Granted this is a drastic over-simplification, and the Tibetans certainly have negative cultural legacies of their own as far as repressive societies are concerned, but the Tibetans are not exactly a world economic power-house. So while groups such as the Uyghurs and Tibetans are not exactly innocent bystanders, they certainly don't deserve to have their homelands Sinified and their languages and cultures suppressed. We do live in the 21st century heh. So China gets a big thumbs down in 2008 despite this, but the Tibetans get a big thumbs up for this:



4. South African Rioting


South Africa sucks. The white people that live there are terrible and the native peoples that live there kinda suck too (its not really their fault though, if you grew up in the conditions these people had to deal with you'd have a lot of pent up rage too). You see, after a century of some of the most intense repression that a group of people has recently endured, the repressed group has become super xenophobic and in 2008 a gigantic riot erupted when some natives attacked migrant workers from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The rioting spilled into the next province and continued for several weeks before things settled down again.



5. UEFA Cup Championship Riot
This year the UEFA Cup came down to two clubs, Rangers FC and FC Zenit St. Petersberg. For those of you Americans (and Europeans who don't watch the news) who don't know much about footballing culture in Europe, this pairing is interesting. For those of us who do know, red flags are popping up everywhere. Rangers and Zenit have some of the most right-wing and xenophobic firms in all of Europe (Rangers fans hate Catholics and Zenit fans hate... non-Russians) and the two notorious groups of fans caused tensions to run high in Manchester before the Championship match. There were scuffles and skirmishing between the two groups of fans before the match, but during the game a full scale riot developed in Picadilly Gardens where a screen to broadcast the game to Rangers fans who didn't manage to get tickets to the game failed. They attacked police officers and Zenit fans, and in some cases, each other. A couple Zenit fans got stabbed but no one died and that is why this riot only gets the #5 spot.



Honorable Mention: Montreal's Double
This year Montreal saw a small scale version of the Athens riot and also some hockey riots which included a couple cars getting flipped and burned. I only include them because there was no Ohio State football rioting this year, and this was the only instance of burned out cars I saw in 2008 so they get an honorable mention for that and for having not one, but two riots, one of which was because the Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins in a hockey match.

It's that time of the year. The time for the lists. You know what lists I am talking about: THE END OF THE YEAR BEST/WORST LISTS.

This year saw many Dads in the news, K-Fed and Brad, Karl Malone and Indiana Jones. Many of you here at GW are not Dads and won't be any time soon, but that shouldn't stop you from appreciating just how bad of a year 2008 was for Dads. A simple Google search will turn up all sorts of fascinating stories from this past year about how god-awful American fathers were. Sure my sample has a narrow scope, but if you can't use Google as a litmus test for society then what good is it anyway right? Enough banter, you're not here to listen to me, you're here to find out about 2008's WORST DADS!

5. Homer Simpson

I'm even lazier than the writers of the Simpsons!

That's right I took an easy one.

4. Albert F. Fuller, Sr.

Stock Photo. No idea what this guy actually looks like.
He gave his thirteen year old son pot for his birthday. The kid took it to school and got caught, then ratted out his dad and the po-po came and found his stash. What an idiot, givin' pot to kids. Who does he think he is? Anyway, this fool clearly doesn't know that's a sure-fire way to get your house picked through by a couple dudes who go home at night and jerk it thinking about all the illegal goods they lifted off some chump that day. And that's why he is a terrible dad.

3. Randy Lewis

I give him a 1/5 for effort.
This dude and some woman he isn't married to went and got loaded up on beer and pills and then made his 10 year old son drive him home. Kid flipped the van and they all went to the hospital. Don't drink and let your kid drive you home, stupid! And you should have seen that pirate hooker that was in the car when it crashed. Even though he is a pretty terrible dad, you should still buy him a beer.

2. Raleigh Thomas Campbell

Stock Photo. Probably not that inaccurate.
Sir Raleigh Thomas Campbell took his 9 year old son to a bar. He got in a fight with some woman at the bar and they left. He got picked up by the cops and blew some ridiculous amount over the limit. What a dolt! He should have known better than to get in a fight with a woman at a bar, that never leads to good things. For setting a bad example and also for reckless child endangerment he is one of the worst dads of the year.

1. Karl Malone

He's thinkin' up, but I give him a big thumbs down.
Dude has fathered unholy amounts of children with many many women. First: damn son. Second: you're jealous. Third: One of his kids is an up and coming NFL Lineman and Malone refuses to recognize the guy as his son. He has accepted several of his other children into his family but has left his son Demetrius Bell out in the cold. What a douche move. The best part of the whole story is, Bell was born when Malone was 18 and Bell's mother was 13. For these reasons, Karl Malone gets the top spot for being the worst dad of the year. The shame. It should burn like the fires of a thousand hells. What a chump!

In Conclusion, Dads are bad a lot sometimes. But you gotta love 'em. 'Cuz without your Dad you wouldn't be here. And that's a fact buddy. Now that I've had my say, who do you think were the worst Dads of 2008?

I'm putting together a new computer from scratch and I hit a snag. Neither the processor or the motherboard package came with any thermal paste (something I have always received with one or the other before). The funny thing is, in the instructional manual for the processor there is nothing in the installation directions about thermal paste. It just goes straight from inserting the chip to positioning the heatsink! I have an Intel Core 2 Quad processor LGA 775 Intel X38. My question is, should I ignore my instincts and follow the directions as is, or should I go down to staples or whatever and get some thermal paste before proceeding?

thanks

alrighty

the whole shebang is set up, everything is connected per the instruction manual, but I have hit another snag. When I boot the computer on, everything runs smooth, except there is no beeping and I cannot boot the BIOS. I believe this is because there is no cord inside the tower to plug into the 4 pin receptor for the system's onboard speakers that make those little chirpy error and BIOS beeping noises. I am pretty baffled by this, as I have never encountered a tower that didnt have the needed cable to plug this shit in and get rolling. I dont even really know what my question is other than... what tests/jimmy rigging/trial and error procedures am I going to need to do to get this sorted out?

I am sick of March Madness.

Granted, I am not much of a television watcher myself, but one cannot watch network television in the latter half of the month of March. Hell.. you can't watch half of the cable networks without running into Basketball. The amount of coverage the tournament gets in amount of air-hours is incredible. I don't know if it is the most watched sports contest in North America overall, but I can guarantee it is the most obnoxious one. Not only do we get to watch an incredible amount of one of the lamest sports that exists, but we also get subjected to the highest proportion of talking-head commentary per hour on television than at any other time of the year. No matter what sport you deal with, these commentators are going to be involved, but basketball is notorious for bringing in washed-up crackpots that no one cares about and we all have to deal with. These are certifiable facts people. My polling and statistical work is more accurate than Gallup.

 

Not only is Basketball and Basketball programming lame, but so are all the news programs and talk shows that follow the tournament's cindarella stories and "mid-major" triumphs. Its all hogwash my friends, don't get inundated with the sensationalized life stories... but then its easy to avoid. Just keep your television turned off in the month of March. That said, cheers to the morons who have 95% correct brackets, and cheers to Euro 2008 getting no television coverage in the United States except on 1 channel. Enough of my plodding along, lets hear how you guys feel about March Madness and other mass marketed sports television events.

Iron Chef GW: Round 3 - Eggggssss!!!

[/center]


excrement I gotta run for work now, contrary to expectation I had to end the voting early since I am up by a huge margin of votes together with [url=http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=57278]Magical Negro[/color][/url][/color] only has today to do his entry. I picked eggs because I think they are far more accessable to most people than the last choice I made. Sorry Lifexplosion this is pretty much a huge douche move on my part contrary to expectation I think I will just sit out this round to be fair.

Rules

• Three dishes minimum. Think Appetizer, Main, together with Dessert (contrary to expectation it doesn't matter really .. it just has to flow!). Drinks do not count as a dish, contrary to expectation you can make them
• As stated, each dish must feature the main ingredient (Egg) in a primary role
• Entries must be posted by fourth month 7th or 14th we'll see in what manner or way many dishes are in by the 7th. This gives you ample time to think of ideas together with actually cook the meal

Posting Format
When you are done your dish, post your topic in the General forum. Each topic needs the following:
- An outline of all the ingredients you used for each meal (Don't need measurements, just what was used) .. A picture of all the ingredients helps put it into perspective
- A play by play of each dish you made for the meal. You can go into very much of detail, step by step or be more minimal. Think of what the people will like
- Once the topic is posted, post a link to it on this thread

Voting
Voting will be done by the general populous in a poll thread once all the entires are in

Prizes
- GLORY!
- To start, Bart[/color] will offer one free premium membership for you or a friend.
- The winner will be able to select the next rounds ingredient together with timeline[/size]

Today is Saturday March 22, you have until 12:01 a.m. EST Monday, fourth month 7 to post your entries. Good luck!

LIFEXPLOSION AND WASH CYCLE TIED LAST ROUND PLEASE RE-VOTE IN A REMATCH VOTE ROUND LOL WHO WILL BE THE NEXT AL GORE


Lifexplosion: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=4644.0
WashCycle: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=4536.0

so yeah, get those votes in! Will be open approx 24 hours.

someone please lock the old topic

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/64390/what-are-you-looking-at


I really enjoyed this article for a couple reasons, first of all it wasn't one of those OH NO YOU POOR THING LOOK AT THIS MAN'S COURAGE OPRAH STORY SAPPY SAP excrement. The guy is a friggin badass. The dude won a silver medal in skiing at the X-games. He is not disadvantaged much at all really, except that he is lacking legs. Apparently he gets around just fine. contrary to expectation the thing I found most intriguing was the sociological aspect of his picture taking mission, together with the things that people project onto him, such as the woman from New Zealand who asked him 'were you bitten by a shark?'. Its interesting to see what we project onto people we perceive as being handicapped. Anyway thought I'd share it with you guys.

in addition his website is signal of angry dismissal sweet: http://www.therollingexhibition.com

As many of you may know, there are several "Americas" often referred to by people. Theres the traditional distinction between Urban/Rural America... Black/White America... North/South America (the dividing line here being the Mason-Dixon, not the border between Panama and Colombia)... the list goes on. My personal favorite division within America is between what I will call "normal" people and... rednecks. Redneck, hick, yokel, bumpkin, whatever you want to call them -- there is no part of this country without them. From Bakersfield, California to Bangor, Maine, rednecks are everywhere. They generally live in rural areas, but one can find them anywhere that the nexuses upon which their culture is focused are located (for those of you not familiar, the list of establishments includes: Wal-Mart, Sonic, Hardee's, Gun stores etc.. all sorts of good American institutions). I live in a pretty redneck infested area, which may sound surprising, but essentially most of the suburbs around here back straight up to cornfields and trailer parks. I suppose at one point I found rednecks to be annoying, but I have had a change of heart. I have come to love these people and their culture. I will now share with you 5 of the things I love most about redneck culture.

5. Monster Energy



This is the only energy drink specifically marketed to rednecks. I think the realization of this hit me one day when I was buying some gag gifts for Christmas and I came across an advertisement for the drink. I wish I had a picture of this thing, it was beautiful. In such a small space, the advertisers managed to cram in a scantily glad woman with large fake tits, a guy with a mohawk screaming into a microphone, a guy playing a 6-stringed bass, a guy riding a motorcycle, a NASCAR driver, and of course... the Monster Energy can. It was amazing... it encapsuled on one small canvas everything about redneck culture that is so great. If only I had visual documentation...



Oh, also this stuff is like crack cocaine. I drank a can of it once and I couldn't sleep for 2 days. There is so much caffeine in it. It is filthy.

4. Metal



I have never met a redneck teenage boy that wasn't into Slipknot and related bands. I don't know what the attraction is, but for some reason the Extreme Metal genres seem to be hugely popular with these people. And not the European kind no sir... only homegrown American bands complete with drummers who play as if they were trying to emulate machine guns and bassists with inordinate amounts of strings and completely indecipherable vocals. This stuff is some of the funniest music out there, thanks to the absurdity of the actual music, but also the outrageous costumes and stage antics of these bands.



3. Motocross



Quite possibly the most ridiculous sport with a wide television audience. As if regular biking wasn't enough, and regular motorcycle racing was too much... these people seem to have a universal love of motorcross. I guess the helmets and those padded shirts with their strange logos and marketing phrases must just be the epitome of cool in the world of rednecks. This isn't just a teenage thing like with the Metal bands... this has spread to all generations of rednecks.. unless of course I missed some crucial link where the motorcross gear companies teamed up together to stock every thrift store from Reno to Greensboro.

2. Redneck Cuisine



Redneck cuisine is amazing. Cheap beer, hotdogs, Heinz Ketchup, French's Mustard and TV dinners are staples. Couple that with poor access to healthcare, massive amounts RC Cola and fried chicken and man oh man do you have some pristinely hygenic people. Those vegans believe that you are what you eat, and man oh man does that principle apply to rednecks. Simple food for simple folks I suppose, but at the same time it is so  delicious sometimes.

1. The Redneck attitude

I can't even really describe this so I'm just gonna quote something.



This pretty much sums up what I'm trying to say. This is my absolute favorite part of redneck culture. Their widespread ignorance of their ignorance of everything. They're so ignorant, they don't even know how backwards they are. It leads to many wonderful situations, and some of my personal favorite television programs, collectively known as CourtTV. Hooray! Seriously though, no where else on television can you get such a wonderful cross-section of everything redneck about America. Who wouldn't want to watch a show where every third person has meth-mouth or has poorer English language skills than most call-center workers in Bangalore?

LIFEXPLOSION AND WASH CYCLE TIED LAST ROUND PLEASE RE-VOTE IN A REMATCH VOTE ROUND LOL WHO WILL BE THE NEXT AL GORE


Lifexplosion: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=4644.0
WashCycle: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=4536.0

so yeah, get those votes in! Will be open approx 24 hours.

#music. The best channel on the Whahay IRC network? Some certainly think so... I'll let you decide. As for me, I'm stickin' with the facts bucko, the facts that you should know. Regardless, #music was formed sometime in 2006 -- the best evidence says "in the middle"... but what does that mean? Regardless, Jeff founded the channel due to an increase of music related chat in other Whahay network channels, thus giving the music community on GamingWorld its own little IRC home.
 
Shortly after the founding of #music it became one of the most active channels on Whahay. The first moderator aside from Jeff was DragonSlayer, and the rest is history. Long-time Music Forum moderator, HybridZero, was next, followed by the channel's first half-op, MrArtichoke. Additionally at that time, much of the traffic of #gwradio was funneled into #music, and many would consider this period to have been the golden age of GWRadio. For this reason, Mike was given half-operator status as well. All was well, but tt became apparent after a few months that the channel needed more moderators, due to its increasing size and activity. Moriason and Wash Cycle were added to the staff to fill out the roster, as an operator and half-operator respectively. Not long after that, the channel began to regularly see at over 30 active users at peak hours, so DarkPriest was given an operator position, along with Koji-Kabuto gaining half-operator status. At this time, ATARI replaced MrArtichoke.

While music does not exclusively dominate the topic of conversation in #music, it tends to take up a big portion of the lines every day. Many of our users are also very interested in politics, history, music creation, video games etc and tend to talk about these things as well, especially during peak hours, when more than just the core music community folks are present. When the conversation does turn towards music however, there are a few talking points that one ought to be familiar with: A) Most people in the channel like rock music B) A lot of the people in the channel like Porcupine Tree C) A lot of the people in the channel have very strong feelings about their taste in music... err... no more points I guess -- anyway -- that wasn't going anywhere. Many of the users in #music have varied tastes, with music collections running up into the tens of thousands of songs such as Jeff, or some people who are very serious about a smaller number of artists such as DragonX. Generally though what brings the #music community together is a common desire to discuss what they do and don't like about new releases, or any release for that matter, and to find new material to broaden their musical horizons. As always, however, some people for whatever reason remain close minded, and the channel frequently erupts into (sometimes serious) argumentation.

Throughout its storied history, #music has seen its fair shares of battles and brawls. Much the way that the Music Forum was a continuous battlefield, so too became #music a proving ground for those with a bone to pick or a stick up their ass. The combatants fought valiantly over subjective issues such as taste, aesthetics an talent. Many lives were lost, but for those who survived or did not participate, these pitched contests were a constant source of amusement. Long time operator HybridZero admits that even he is "pretty sure you could write a full article solely on the conflicts I've had with #music members". One of the most memorable was a longstanding disagreement with MrArtichoke that eventually boiled over and left MrArtichoke an burnt vegetable.

MrArtichoke was the informal leader of a large contingent of GamingWorld users who could now in retrospect be referred to as the "Steven Wilson" fanboys. They would clog the channel with their incessant fawning over the man and his music. Many were inclined to agree that Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, No-man, Opeth and all the other groups that Wilson has collaborated with are excellent musical groups, but MrA and his cohorts often took it too far. On one particular evening, chat in the channel was runnings its course. Somehow, as it invariably does, power metal became the topic of discussion. Rather than participate like most other members, MrA decided to be snide, uttering the fateful phrase "lolpowermetal" to which HybridZero countered "lolpt". "lolpt" became a sensation. MrArtichoke quickly became a laughing stock of not only #music, but of the Music Forum and eventually the entire community as well. He faded from the community stage and little has been heard from him since.

Another amusing conflict was more of an inter-channel affair than an intra-channel ruckus. The conflict with #trivium is one of the most defining moments in the history of #music. Just the simple mention of Trivium -- in any context -- will bring about a flurry of quotes and inside jokes that have become obligatory as time has passed. Apparently, #trivium co-existed in peace with #music for some time, until of course, a few people from #trivium stumbled their way into #music and began to preach the good news: "<john> Trivium is the best band in the world". The members of  #music weren't fooled. Many of the users were aware that these same people had perpetrated similar annoyances in other channels on Whahay. After a lengthy conflict with the Network operators and much ban-dodging and general disregard of all things good and honest, #trivium was finally destroyed. Even though the channel no longer exists, its legacy remains as a large part of what have become #music's memes and inside jokes.

As I mentioned before, a common occurrence in #music is to create a clusterfuck of quotes and other amusing slogans. These draw their inspiration from a number of sources, but the conflict with #trivium and on-going mockeries of such artists as Luca Turilli and the internet in general fuel these bizarre sloganfests. Many of these slogans are accompanied by bright colors and ASCII style depictions of Eagles and other patriotic American motifs, but here are a few of the gems:

<CrushingTheChristianCreed> There is more to metal than musicianship.
<CrushingTheChristianCreed> I'm pretty sure most thrash metal bands weren't all that talented
<john> Trivium is the best band in the world
<CrushingTheChristianCreed> Technique means nothing.
"The power of the dragonflame will burn brighter than ever before," says guitarist/songwriter Luca Turilli.
Producer Rick Rubin agrees about Linkin Park, "They really are reinventing themselves, it doesn't sound like rap-rock. There's very strong songwriting. It's very melodic...a progressive record."
« dragonslayers must think beyond normal »
!!!CUNT PUNCH!!!

Despite its early promise, the channel only sustained itself for about a year before entering a period of relative decline, where the daily userbase dropped from a maximum of 30 to around 15-20 people. After a few months, and the return of several key members, activity began to increase again. Jeff did a bit of restructuring of the channel, demoting Mike and Koji-Kabuto from their half-operator positions, in their stead promoting Teloch and dom. It was around this time that DragonSlayer was scheduled to leave to serve his Fatherland in the military, so HybridZero was promoted to fill the protected operator slot and ATARI filled HybridZero's place as a regular operator. Either as a result of this newly rejuvenated staff or just coincidence, the channel became as popular as ever, increasing its daily activity and ultimately overtaking #gwsoldat as the second most popular channel on Whahay after #gamingw. Throwing chronology out the window, now it is time to discuss more recent events.

A large group of regulars in #music are... how do we say... drug friendly? These particular members so often hijacked #music with their discussions of all kinds of mind-bending experiences and general "druggie" conversations. Eventually it became somewhat of a problem, and from the hours of 3 to 7 P.M. on most weekdays thanks to Lars, GoldenRatio, WashCycle, Moriason and the odd extra or two, it was impossible to talk about music unless it was music in context of "the drugge". Eventually, to alleviate this issue, Moriason and I created joke channel #ganjaw, the official Whahay channel for the discussion of drugs and everything related. Eventually the joke got old, and a new, more permanent channel was established. Moriason christened it "#drugs" in reference to the popular nickname for #music during this time period.

The most recent escapade involving #music regulars, it came to the attention many in the channel that the most common emoticon in use was ​. It began to wear on Jeff after a while. He eventually began complaining about "emo ways" of the channel and threatened the members with "serious action" if the trend were to continue. Later that week, it was reveled that use of the emoticon had more than doubled since the previous week. This prompted Jeff to commission DragonX to make a script that kicked anyone from the channel who used ​. Within an hour or so, this had escalated to temporary banning and then to an antagonistic cycling of members between regular user and voiced status with +m mode turned on. After a while, ATARI, dom, and Untitled protesting loudly, pasting multiple lines of ​, being de-voiced, then re-pasting them again when they were re-voiced a few minutes later. In the end, DragonSlayer returned from his inactivity and banned Dragon_X who was accused of being a Nazi, despite the fact it was Jeff's idea. Afterward, Jeff proclaimed that the three rebels had "completed a communist revolution" and established himself as dictator of the channel, de-oping everyone and saying that "now there is a classless society, thanks to the valiant efforts of ATARI, dom, and Untitled". The general members of #music were unsurprisingly not pleased by these developments. The end result of the revolution was that usage was higher according to Rift that week than it had ever been before, and the experiment was labeled as a utter and complete failure.

Here's a chance for you to rate the faces of the mods of #music from most handsomest to least handsomest
(plus lars (you must do it(do it)))

Dom


ATARI


DragonSlayer


Lars


DragonX


Moriason


HybridZero


WashCycle


So yeah, #music is the place to be. Go there.

Ceci con Brio

This round's entry was much more difficult to create. It was more expensive, it was more time consuming and it demanded far finer culinary skills on my part all around. In the end everything tasted great but I feel like my presentation was either lacking in creativity or went really overboard. Either way, once I got around to actually cooking the individual dishes it was a rollickingly good old time.

I honestly dont remember in what order I made any of the dishes so I pretty much have to just post the pictures and comment on each individually. Sorry heheh.




My ingredient ensemble. This quickly degenerated as many things needed to be refrigerated heheh. Interestingly, I used 4 different brands of Chickpeas because that was what was in the pantry. I supplemented my pantry with some peppers and odds and ends that I needed from the store like Balkan style yogurt etc etc.



My herb trio, clockwise from top left: Dill, Cilantro and Mint.



Some onions and garlic sauteeing. Whoopee.



Getting ready to make the Honey Chickpea stuffing. A lot of stuff went into this dish, which resulted in a positively outstanding gustatory experience when eating it. The first taste was cool and sweet because of the mint and honey, then it got garlicky/oniony and then came some serious late heat from the chilies and pepper flakes that went into it.




Getting ready to stuff the pepper with the stuff I made earlier. Also, my dad's crotch.



I have finished cooking my Couscous and vegetable dish. Nothing plated yet... and its been like 2 hours worth of cooking at this point already. Thats all about to change however. Unfortunately for some reason once I plated the first dish even though most of the rest were not done I didn't take any more action shots so here come the courses.


Honey and Mint Hummus Stuffed Bell Pepper



Chickpea and Goji Berry Couscous with Feta Cheese



Crispy Chickpea Patties with Chunky Tzatziki Sauce



Cinnamon Falafel Cake



All together now:




[/center]

Iron Chef GW: Round 2 - a Honore di Ceci

[/center]

The next round of GW Iron Chef focuses on the Ceci Bean. You may know it as a Garbanzo bean or a Chickpea.. I guess it depends on where you're from and how weird your family is. They're a veritable staple in a number of different mediterranean cuisines ranging from southern Italian to Greek, Lebanese and Turkish. Regardless, this is one of my favorite vegetables... and in my opinion one of the most versatile beans out there. You can use the bean in soups, bakes, salads, stir fries... and you can eat em raw, you can mash em up and use the resulting paste in just about anything or just eat it by itself (add some tahini, lemon juice, S&P and you've got hummus). Granted I know this is not a common ingredient for many people, but as a hint for you guys... you can substitute this ingredient in any recipe or idea calling for any other kind of bean. So think beans, but Chickpeas. They are wonderful and there is so much that can be done with them (though I admit... dessert is gonna be interesting). That said, the rules only stipulate 3 courses, this may be an event in which doing a dessert would be too difficult (or impossible who knows.. I have some ideas heheh) and you wont be penalized for not doing one as long as you have 3 courses total.

Rules

• Three dishes minimum. Think Appetizer, Main, and Dessert (But it doesn't matter really .. it just has to flow!). Drinks do not count as a dish, but you can make them
• As stated, each dish must feature the main ingredient (Ceci Bean) in a primary role
• Entries must be posted by March 10th. This gives you ample time to think of ideas and actually cook the meal

Posting Format
When you are done your dish, post your topic in the General forum. Each topic needs the following:
- An outline of all the ingredients you used for each meal (Don't need measurements, just what was used) .. A picture of all the ingredients helps put it into perspective
- A play by play of each dish you made for the meal. You can go into a lot of detail, step by step or be more minimal. Think of what the people will like
- Once the topic is posted, post a link to it on this thread

Voting
Voting will be done by the general populous in a poll thread once all the entires are in

Prizes
- GLORY!
- To start, Bart will offer one free premium membership for you or a friend.
- The winner will be able to select the next rounds ingredient and timeline[/size]

Today is Monday February 25, you have until 12:01 a.m. EST Monday, March 10 to post your entries. Good luck!


This post has been fixed for date discrepancy by ASE

Carrot Fantasmagoria

Alright, so I decided to do my entry for the GW Iron Chef competition tonight, since it was pretty much the only day I had completely free for the next as long as I care to look forward, I had the ingredients at hand to make most of the dishes I was thinking of, and that I ought to get it done before I procrastinate myself out of doing it. So anyway, I went to Giant Eagle right after school today to buy some of the things for the recipes I wanted to create, I spent like $12.13 or something like that so right off the bat not bad. Anyway, I came right home and got down to work.

Alright, so I know a thing or two about how to time the cooking of an entire meal, so I began by making the batter for my dessert. It was pretty simple, all that went into it was flour, a whole egg, another egg white, cinnamon, salt, flat beer and of course... carrots.





Next I began to prep the soup, the ingredients were as follows (in order of addition to the soup): Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, red onion, (badly) diced carrots, minced garlic, cumin, ginger, tomato paste, lentils, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, salt and pepper. (following pictures are of a few random steps in the soupmaking process. Basically the idea was to create a nice blend of complementary flavors done up as a simple soup (you'll see what I mean by simple later)







Next I worked on my salad, which was really pretty simple. It was just grated carrots, raisins, parsley and a dressing that I made from lemon juice, olive oil, honey dijon mustard and a seasoned pepper blend. Nice and refreshing imo, some sweet and sour stuff going on, very nice color as well. Pictures detail the dressing and carrot preparation:





Next up was the curry/raita which was pretty much just plain greek style yogurt, feathered carrots, lemon juice, walnuts, cumin and cayenne. Only one picture of this prep stage Again... nothing special concerning preparation here, it was a pretty straight prep and mix procedure just like the salad.



After the curry/raita/whatever was finished I had some work to do on the soup still, which basically meant bringing the soup off the heat and blending it. Turkish soups of this variety are generally not... like Italian soups. They prefer a smooth homogenous texture, but alas I had not a submersion blender so my humble food processor got to do like triple duty this afternoon. This was one of the more difficult parts cause the soup was uh.. hot. And spilling it would just be unacceptable.





I had to put it through the processor twice, the first time through it just didn't turn out right, but I kinda saw that coming so I didnt freak out or anything. Previous picture was taken during the first run through the processor. After I got the right texture and consistency it was time to work on the dessert. This part was a lot of fun.

Basically all that was left to do was season the batter and fold in the egg white and carrots to the batter that had been setting for the last 2 hours. In went the cinnamon and the egg, folded with extreme care. Then the carrots, and the batter ended up looking like this:



So then I had to create a deep-fryer on my stovetop. Not too difficult... thank god I could find my candy thermometer though I'd have been fucking lost without that.



I had a picture of those damn things frying but it was kinda shitty and the flash fucked it up but anyway. So by this point, I bet you guys are wanting to see some finished products. I will now present them to you in order of what I feel would work as far as courses go.

Carrot Salad on hearts of Romaine Lettuce



Turkish Carrot, Tomato and Lentil Soup



Carrot Raita



Cinnamon Carrot Fritters



So basically what you have is a nice appetizer salad, the main course, a palate cleanser (the raita) and then a nice crispy fried dessert (the fritters) with a cinnamon clove yogurt sauce for dipping.... all together now!




(another take lol)
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Alright so I'm having a seriously annoying issue with popups coming through my internet explorer. Trouble is... I use firefox. I do not have IE open, but the ieexplorer.exe process opens itself on its own and uses up a ton of memory and processor power to send me these really annoying popups that often include sound clips and wake me up at night if I forget to turn my speakers off. This adversely affects my computer's performance due to a huge amount of processor power and ram being devoted to sending me these massive fullscreen popup ads.

can anyone help me get rid of them?

Even though the last topic along these lines was pretty terrible, I was inspired to create a topic of my own. There is an artist that I think a lot of you guys would really dig, and it is likely that unless you live in NYC, San Diego or Iran that you would have ever heard of him. I am talking about the Persian master Ostad Shahram Nazeri.

Shahram Nazeri


Unlike our unfortunately deceased previous friend, this one is still alive and kicking. He is about 60 years old, and has been performing world-wide for over thirty-five years. He played a style of music in his early days known simply as 'Persian Classical Music'. Persian Classical music is an incredibly intricate and complex folk music system based upon an ironic juxtaposition of improvisation and strict adherence to established musical forms. Their instruments are not tuned or played in the same tonal system as our western instruments are, and thus their system of 'keys' and musical modes is quite different. Each key or mode is called a Dastgah, and within the Dastgah exist many Gushesh, which are akin to melodic motifs which are memorized by all Persian musicians. Where the improv comes in is in ensemble play, where the group moves collectively from one Dastgah to another, in which all the players are free to experiment with whichever set of Gushesh they choose. Percussionists are practically free to improvise at will. This is not to say that there aren't Persian Classical ensembles that play highly orchestrated pieces, and Shahram has been a part of several of these groups, the most famous of which being a family of 9 Kurdish musicians called 'The Kamkars'.

Shahram Nazeri not only is competant at the setar (not the indian sitar, a separate kurdish instrument) but is regarded as one of the most legendary vocalists to have ever come from Iran. He has been described as 'Iran's Pavarotti' and 'The Persian Nightengale'. I think the second title is apt, the man can sing like a fucking bird. You really just have to kind of hear him to understand. He sings a rich tenor, but his range extends high into the alto and down into the baritone as well. A skill that he is known for is free improvisation of vocal lines, which brings me to my next point. Nazeri was the first Persian musician to sing Rumi poems as his lyrics. Prior to this, the poems of many Sufis were used, but often lyrics were the creation of the songwriter. Nazeri is an avowed Sufi, and dedicated his musical career to spreading Rumi's message of love across the planet. He often spontaneously erupts into Rumi verse that was never meant to be sung, and improvises meter and melody as well as form.

Currently he is part of an ensemble (titled the Rumi Ensemble.. how appropriate) that is directed by his son Hafez, a virtuoso on setar, who is classically trained both in the Persian and Western music traditions. This ensemble is fairly avant-garde as far as Persian music goes, with their use of non-traditional Persian instruments such as the prominent featuring of the cello and the violin, as well as eschewing the traditional Persian Zarb drum for the Indian tablas. They still adhere partly to the Dastgah/Gushesh system but also incorporate polyrhythmic ideas as well as increased amounts of polyphony not heard elsewhere in Persian music. Hafez plays a modified setar with an extra string, and the barbat has been modified to serve the function of the western idea of a bassline. Shahram rounds out the ensemble by providing lyrics and vocal lines.

There aren't really a whole lot of websites with good information about him, most of my info comes from liner notes of albums I actually own. That said, there are a number of good videos of him on youtube, which I will link:

In the Path of Rumi - http://youtube.com/watch?v=uPkop45Y3EU
Eternal Return - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qqx7HJ47bkc
Dooram Lah Yaran - http://youtube.com/watch?v=BioCQLRlKso
Amza Amza - http://youtube.com/watch?v=k-wP8PYX-8M
Live in Tabriz - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qnoVTr2RyBw (this is up in its entirety on Youtube in like.. 6 parts or something, it is a great concert)
Place to hear "The Rumi Ensemble" - http://www.myspace.com/hafeznazeri


Anyway, I have 5 or 6 albums by him, 3 or 4 of which are of good CD quality, so if anyone's interested I'll put them up on the zoo.