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Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup!

mmmmm. This took 90mins to make! I didn't have any creamed corn...so I decided to make my own! Delicious!

Creamed Corn recipe -
1 can sweet corn
2 teaspoons sugar
1 clove of garlic
250ml water
knob of butter
tub of cream fraiche- 150ml roughly

1. Melt butter in pan
2. Throw in sweet corn (just the corn - no juice!), add sugar and the finely chopped garlic
3. Sweat it for 10 mins on low heat
4. Add water, cook for 20 more minutes, medium low heat
5. Take out 2/3, whack it in a blender and add cream, till its silky smooth
6. Mix the unblended 1/3 of corn into the cream
7. Serve up hot or cold......OR proceed to making this chicken soup!!

Chicken & Sweetcorn soup recipe!

Can's worth of creamed corn
2 chicken legs (thigh & drumstick)
Thumb size chunk of ginger
2 spring onion sprigs
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons soya sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 litre water
1 chicken stock cube

1. brown up the chicken legs with ginger, garlic cloves & roughly chopped spring onions for 5 minutes
2. throw in the water, stock cube & 1 table spoon of soya sauce
3. simmer for 30 minutes
4. remove chicken legs, scrape off meat, then throw the skin & bones back into the liquid
5. simmer for 30minutes
6. sieve liquid
7. add creamed corn & meat
8. put a little water in a mug with the cornflour and stir well, before throwing that in too
9. mix & simmer
10. beat an egg with the sesame oil & a drop of soya sauce
11. mix that into the soup
12. garnish with spring onion
13. ?????
14. profit

Very tasty!

The Space-time physics of Boredom part 1.

Time flies when you're having fun. It crawls when you're bored.
This would suggest that time is merely what we perceive it to be and that our perceptions can be altered by a number of things.

So why can't we make time last longer when we're having fun or merely enjoying ourselves?
Well... when you're bored, your brain generally isn't being stimulated & your mind notices this. It also notices the passage of time...and...how...painfully....slow...it...is..

However, as soon as genuinely interesting things happen, your brain shifts into gear and you become immersed in this new thing. Your mind won't notice this new stimulation. It just blindly accepts it & blam! time rolls along without you realising it's stupid slowness. In fact, it speeds up.

So time is dependant on our variable perceptions and we can actually control the rate of flow of time! It always goes forwards, make no mistake about that. In theory, if we were to become infinitely bored....we would also be able to slow down time to an infinitely slow pace. In effect, stopping time. We could also speed up time by having more fun!

Stay tuned for more bullshit science!

Useful code for a rainy day.

I stole most of this from the Autodesk Area blog and adapted it. It lets you attach follicles in Maya depending on the level of blue in the given textureNode... To do - attach feathers/scales to objects, fancy controls.. density etc.

proc attachObjectToSurface(string $surface, float $u, float $v )
{
string $follicle = `createNode follicle`;
string $tforms[] = `listTransforms $follicle`;
string $follicleDag = $tforms[0];


connectAttr ($surface + ".worldMatrix[0]") ($follicle + ".inputWorldMatrix");
string $nType = `nodeType $surface`;
if( "nurbsSurface" == $nType ){
connectAttr ($surface + ".local") ($follicle + ".inputSurface");
} else {
connectAttr ($surface + ".outMesh") ($follicle + ".inputMesh");
}
connectAttr ($follicle + ".outTranslate") ($follicleDag + ".translate");
connectAttr ($follicle + ".outRotate") ($follicleDag + ".rotate");
setAttr -lock true ($follicleDag + ".translate");
setAttr -lock true ($follicleDag + ".rotate");
setAttr ($follicle + ".parameterU") $u;
setAttr ($follicle + ".parameterV") $v;

//parent -addObject -shape $obj $follicleDag;
//parent $obj $follicleDag;
}

proc scanSurface()
{
string $selection[]=`ls -sl`;
//string $obj=$selection[0];
string $surface=$selection[0];
float $i;
float $j;
for($i=0; $i<=100; $i++){ for($j=0; $j<=100; $j++){ float $Ucoord=$i/100; print $Ucoord; float $Vcoord=$j/100; print $Vcoord; float $values[]=`colorAtPoint -o RGB -u $Ucoord -v $Vcoord file1`; if($values[2]>=0.75)
{
attachObjectToSurface($surface, $Ucoord, $Vcoord);
}
}}

}

Dude, where's my rolling pin?

Somehow I managed to lose a rather hefty rolling pin on my way home from grocery shopping today. It only cost 99pence, so I'm not shedding any (real) tears over it - but still, I was looking forward to rolling out some clay today!!
I believe the pin dropped through a whole in the poorly constructed Wilkinsons' plastic bag, probably somewhere in the park.....thus not making any noise. So...someone's dog has a new chew toy. Fallen Rolling pin, we salute you.

Mmmmm tasty. French Country Style Chicken Breast Fillet.
Here's the recipe!

• 4 chicken breasts
• half a lemon
• chopped parsley leaves
• 4 tablespoons Garlic & Herb Cream Cheese
• Parma Ham
• Olive Oil
• Cherry Tomatoes
• New Potatoes

Cut a pocket in the chicken, stuff the parsley and cheese in. Wrap Parma ham round the chicken.
Chuck it all into a dish, liberally drizzle olive oil and squeeze the lemon juice everywhere. Add the squashed lemon half to the dish.
Throw into the oven for about 40mins, Gas Mark 5. Then chuck in the tomatoes & cook for 5 more mins. YESSSSSSSS.

Oh, and boil up the potatoes for 15 mins.
This concludes today's exciting instalment of my blog...where not much slacking actually takes place.

We have a winner...

...for best film of this year*.
It doesn't matter that this is only mid-May. The last second of this trailer is better than any other film I've seen since January. Will Transformers 2 beat this? Only a transforming flying shark WITH LASER EYES can make that possible.

*note that I've not actually watched the entire film yet.

Also, it only occured to me yesterday, but I've been in my current job for 4 years and 4 days. I remember in my first year of working, an older animator telling me once that after 3 years, if you've not left the profession you're in it for life. I probably laughed at him. Maybe because his face was funny. Or because I was drunk.

My Star Trek review.

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night. It was mostly good, with a few side helpings of pew pew. Lets not dwell on the good parts though, as that would be boring.

Firstly...no, lets not say firstly...I think its the only real problem I have with the film.. - Kirk finds himself on a frozen world and encounters a questionable monster. Logically speaking (heh), creatures dwelling in such cold climates have adapted to their surroundings. Penguins, polar bears, arctic foxes..they all have features which allow them to live long and prosper (yes I'm on a roll). So Kirk is being chased by a snow-baboon thing. It is white and furry, as you'd expect it to be. Then all of a sudden, a GIANT RED ANT from the Lost Planet videogame jumps out of the cold water and bites it up.
Right - How many animals that live in cold climates are coloured red? How many insectoids do you see thriving in cold climates, let alone surviving underwater laying in wait for snow-baboons? Sorry Mr Abrams, but for future director cuts of this movie, please colour this creature appropriately.

Oh, and I made awesome peanut butter cookies. I give Star Trek 7 arbitrary cookie points. It would have been 11 but the giant red ant bothered me so much.