On larger notes, I’ve reopened some of the cloud work I started doing for NSM a couple of months ago, trying to create a simple GUI for managing xml backed databases online that doesn’t look at (or care) what the db is plugged into, or what it contains. This is an exciting project that I’m really fast getting a really big part of again, so hopefully I can share some more details in the near future. Perhaps even a separate development blog for this project!

Everyone has an opinion on art. It is always dissected, analyzed, defragmented and opinionized down to the last letter, paper and colour. Hidden meanings and agendas are uncovered in paintings, sculptures and photograps. People in search of one thing dismiss everything that isn’s their own goal as irrelevant or just bad. Technical arguments are used to make art something it isn’t – or even trying to be. Quite often it seems, people’s obsession with tools, technique or equipment gets in the way of seeing, or making, true art. Just as often are works that does not correspond to one’s view of how things should be dismissed, like the link above.

It doesn’t matter what you’re thinking. You’re wrong anyway.

Art is another beast entirely. Art is all the things above, except art does not need a purpose. Art can be, if it wants to, the application of form, color and shapes to a specific task, but it doesn not need to. What art needs to to is to evoke a different layer of conciousness – emotions if you will. Art needs only to the intent and purpose of its creator. And because that is all it needs, it almost always will provoke some kind of reaction from the viewer, even if that reaction is indifference.

Design needs an audience. Art does not.

Pollock fillet – 2 medium fillets per person
Carrots – 2 per person
Potatoes – 2 big ones per person
Onions – 1 small per person
Egg – 1 per person
Flour – 3 tablespoons per person
Cream cheese
Butter
Olive oil
Herbs and spices: nutmeg, cumin, chili, oregano, basil, salt and pepper

1. Potatoes: Wash and peel potatoes. Put them in an oven tray and drizzle over with herbs and spices of yur choice. I like cumin, paprika, basil, oregano and chili. A bit of salt is good too. This all goes in the oven (without any form of fluid but stirred often) on 200 degrees for about half an hour if you have a hot air function. If not, it will take longer. Most important thing is that the potatoes are soft and mushy before serving.

2. Carrots: Peel and wash carrots. Dice them into cubes of about 1x1cm and boil until soft. Add one tablespoon of cream cheese and one tablespoon of butter, add a pinch of nutmeg and a small teaspoon of cumin. Mash until nice and creamy. Taste and add salt and / or pepper if nescesary.

3. Onions: Slice onions into half circle rings, fry in a pan with butter, olive oil and paprika powder until soft and brown. When they are done they will have a slightly sweet taste to them. You might need to add more butter as you are frying them, depending on the type of coating your pan has.

4. Fish: Make sure there are no bones or skin on the Pollock fillets. Crack eggs in one bowl, stir gently. Put flour and spices of your choice and mix well. Then, when your frying pan is at full temperature and you have put some real butter in, that has melted, roll the fish first in the eggs and then in the flour mix. Fry in the pan for about 2mins on each side, depending on how thick they are. For optimum result, use enough butter in the pan so that the fish doesn’t stick and the coating doesn’t  burn.

Serve all together hot and with a glass of nice cold sparkling water.

There is a plan at some point to start blogging about the wedding preparations.. when they get more underway hopefully. Time will tell.

It seems, that for texture and consistency, salt is the trick. When boiling them, add as much salt as you dare, but be careful not to pierce the skin of the potatoes after you have done this, as it will cause them to get very salty and uneatable in the end. It works best with smaller types, like Duchesse and Cherie, but larger, newpotatoes and similiar will also work well, you just need to be patient and give them enough time to boil properly.

The salt trick works when oven baking them as well. Place potatoes with skin on a baking tray, drizzle over as much salt as you dare, as much as 2kg is fine, and again, be careful not to pierce the skin. Bake in oven on roughly 200 degrees celsius until they start collapsing inside the skin, that means they are finished and that the texture is just perfect.

Serve with melted butter and chives with a pinch of fine sea salt, Washington or Maldon are my favourites, and just a twist of fresh pepper. Alternately, mix with balsamic vinegear and olive oil for a fresh take on the potato salad!

Use as a side for almost anything  that needs potatoes, or just as a dish on it’s own!

Wherever I go, I’m connected. Facebook. Twitter. Several blogs. Hotmail. Gmail. Google maps and WIKIPEDIA. I can connect and access them with the flick of my thumb, a status update on one is reflected on all the others without me doing anything, everything is linked to everything else and information floats freely between services and platforms. A true child of the age of information revolution, I think differently about what I share and tell others than my parents, I lie open my life to a potential of users that is ever growing. If I’m  not careful I will risk others stealing my very identity with the intent to misuse the information obtained.

I’m willing to take the risk. I move borders. I change people. I can alter the course of a small group. I can interest the local media. I am part of the whole. We are. We change the world. We alter the course of billions. We attract interest of all the media. We are the people of the world, and we are working, communicating and living… together. As one single world, one single mechanism, we have begun the shift that will forever change the borders, the dividers and the mental state of nations. We have begun the change that will change democracy forever.

I’m willing to risk it. The benefit is too good to miss.

We’re better. Connected.

What is your hope? Give us your thoughts on brookfieldlodge.org/wordpress