soft poached eggs

There is truly no finer way to prepare an egg than to poach it... softly. I think soft poached eggs are my favorite way to eat eggs. Of course it's not appropriate everywhere, but I love runny yolk like I love my right arm, and in the soft poached egg, the yolk is perfectly runny. I like them on toast, on salads, in noodles, in soup... If there is a place I can put a poached egg, I will try my best to put a poached egg there.

One of the best poached eggs I've had at a restaurant was at Momofuku in Manhattan's East Village. The entire white of the egg is soft and gelatinous, while the yolk is suitably creamy. I imagine they use room temperature eggs and cook the egg at a consistently low heat for an extended amount of time, but I've not yet tried to achieve such a feat. It'll definitely be something to attempt.

moral quandary

First of all, I am so sorry if you're looking at this at work because the above picture is so not safe for work, unless your work involves looking at porn, but you know, I have to retain my artistic integrity no matter where you're reading this. Hey, look, at least I blurred out the best part, right? Oh, and as a disclaimer, pretty much all the links in the following post are also NSFW.

Anyway, as you may have heard, some days ago they arrested two guys in connection to the murder of Bryan Phillips (né Bryan Kocis), the founder of gay twink porn studio, Cobra Video. As it may be aware to some, I love watching porn (really, what man doesn't?), so when I heard some months ago that Bryan Phillips had been murdered, I was shocked and a little saddened. Whence will come the kind of cute, damaged twinks that Cobra was famous for? I can't live on the memories of Brent Corrigan (né Sean Lockhart) forever!

While it didn't really answer my question, the news that they'd caught the killers was a relief. Yeah, Bryan Phillips was probably an exploitive, manipulative, underage-boy-loving asshole, but people shouldn't get away with murder (If it sounds like I have a double standard about enjoying porn created in such an environment by a man I prejudicially dislike, that's because I do have such a double standard. What do you want me to do about it?).

Of course, after I found out who the killers were, I was immediately struck with a moral quandary. I think one of them, Harlow Cuadra (the blowee pictured above), is hot. But wait, he's a murderer... and... I shouldn't think murders are hot... right? What is the emotional response deemed by our society as "correct" in such a situation? This is not something that I remember being taught in kindergarten. Is it okay to think he's hot, as long as I do so guiltily and feel bad about it? Am I allowed to think he's hot at all? The truth is there is no porn actor I would actually, really want to do (there's that double standard again), so is it okay in that context? I had similar feelings during the whole Scott and Laci Peterson thing, though only after Scott lost all that weight in guilt.

Also, sort of on a tangent... Do soldiers' spouses have the same sort of moral reservations when their beloved comes back from war? Do they think about how many people they killed while they were there? Or if all the people they killed really deserve to die?

I guess it doesn't really matter. My soul is black and my heart is dead and cold, but I suppose I was just wondering what one's supposed to think in such a situation.

oh so hot

Not that further proof is required, as it is obvious to anyone who spends any amount of time outside when it's sunny, but here is further proof! When the sun comes out, so do the hot, hot, hot boys! How else can you explain the torrent of new missed connections? Twelve on Tuesday alone!

We had a record high of 84 degrees here in Seattle yesterday (not hottest ever, just for the recorded history of May 15th), and it was very nice. I suppose we've got to enjoy the climate change while it's still bearable, before the lakes dry up, the animals all die off, and we're forced to live in underground tunnels where everyone will be ugly. Guess how much faith I have in humanity to change the course of what we're all doing to our planet.

Also, let's give thanks to Diesel and Chad White.

praise be to the lord

I woke up this morning to the news that Jerry Falwell, professional bigot and all around hateful lump of flesh, finally died. This is great news for the world. He spent his life making money by instilling fear and hatred into the hearts of the undereducated. That's right, people gave him money to hear him spew vitriol about how much he hated blacks, Jews, gays, and liberals. There is absolutely no need for that bullshit anywhere, at any time.

I'd like to say that God wrapped his hands around his heart and squeezed until it stopped beating, but there is no God, or if there was one, He left us long, long ago. Falwell lived to the age of 73 and amassed a fortune those of us who live honestly will likely never see. No god would have let that happen. So it's a disappointment that Falwell is not now being sent to the Gates of Hell for what he wrought on Earth.

What annoys me most is that I expect the mainstream media will, as they always do, look back on the life of the departed, and somehow only remember the good things that they did. Not everyone's a fucking saint, and Jerry Falwell was an especially horrible person. But of course, when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter. No matter what they say about him, he's still dead. And that is comforting.

night owl

I am a night owl. Always have been. I'm trying to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, like normal working people do, but I just can't do it (it might have something to do with the fact that I am not a normal or working person). Even if I force myself to wake up early, and I am tired all throughout the day, after the sun goes down, I am full of energy to go do something. Unfortunately, practically nothing is open late (except for bars, but who wants to spend all their nights in a bar?) in the US; in Taipei, I could still go out to the night market and pick up some snacks or shop for CDs, DVDs, clothes, and other shit I don't need, and I wouldn't be the only one! But what usually ends up happening (if i don't go out to a bar...) is I try to get to sleep at a decent hour, but it doesn't work, so I read. I read until my eyes get blurry and I am actually tired, and then I go to sleep. Of course, when I do get to sleep, I don't end up sleeping as much as I think I ought to, and so I am tired again for the next day... until the night comes, and I am ready to go. The reason this bothers me a little, is I almost wish I was more of a morning person. Whenever I accomplish something in the morning, I really feel like I've used my time well. If I get what I want done by noon, then I have the entire rest of the day to do something else. Bah, I don't know. Perhaps, I will just have to go back to accepting my night-owl-hood, and get things done at night like I have been doing since I was little. (Did I mention that I think I think better at night too? Though you couldn't really tell by this rambling mess.)