Black Addiction Chocolate Pie Recipe

Okay, this was something I wanted to put up earlier, but I ended up getting delayed again and again.

Black Addiction Chocolate Pie

By Alex Baggett

Ingredients

·         2 cups heavy whipping cream

·         1 Hershey’s special dark pudding mix

·         1 Oreo Pie Crust

·         1 Ghirardelli Cabernet Matinee Chocolate bar.

Directions

Break the chocolate into squares and put it into a large saucepan. Pour the whole milk into the saucepan as well. Heat on low while stirring slowly for 8-10 minutes.  When it just barely starts to steam, turn the heat off. And stir vigorously until the chocolate is mixed in. There will be small pieces floating around at this point and that is okay.  Empty the pudding mix into the mixture. Stir first with your mixing device from earlier, then when there are no longer large clumps, use an immersion blender or an eggbeater or other electric mixer to blend it in more finely. After that pour the result into the Oreo pie crust. Cover using the cover that came with the Oreo pie crust and put into the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Then you can take it out and serve.

Blogging

Before I started blogging, the first question in my mind was essentially: What is the point of this?
The second question was: Isn't there something more useful or entertaining that I could be doing instead?

Let's face it, blogging isn't doesn't really give the same feeling as watching an episode of your favorite show.
But I have learned its not really about that. Its not entertainment, and that's okay.  It doesn't pay the bills  (so far) either and that's also okay.  But it has done this for me, it has made me able to think clearly about my life and helped me to express myself much more clearly and succinctly than ever before, and for that I am grateful.

Catching up

Lately I have realized the value of talking with people just for the sake of it.  Connecting and reaching out to people can quickly transform acquaintances and coworkers into full-fledged friends.  I spoke with a man at the meditation center that I go to today. I am still not 100% sure what his passion is. I think he said it was about being open and available to support others emotionally or something about inspiration. But nevertheless, this guy was quite happy that I talked to him personally. I didn't say anything that special by any means. I just told him what my passion was in life and my struggle to realize it. I told him how I got onto my path. And he told me about his.

I also did a face-reading of a woman there at the meditation center. I had to tell her what I saw. I was compelled by the notion that I needed to start being more forthright with matters of the heart. I saw sadness, hurt, and shame/blame.Perhaps she blamed herself for something. Her feelings were somewhat buried under other emotions but I could tell what she was feeling inside. In any event, I was surprised that I was not ridiculed for the reading after the meditation.  I guess some part of me expected her to react negatively about being told something from a reading - an ill-conceived belief I am sure.  It turned out I was right, she was grieving over a loss of some kind.  I ended up hugging her twice and she was quite appreciative.

Oddly, despite all of this, I still feel a cold almost mechanicalness about my own feelings and actions. I guess I knew, I wasn't fully sincere about this. I wanted her to be happy, but not deeply from the bottom of my heart. I wanted to be friends with this man, but at some level I knew I was seeking to benefit from such a friendship. Some part me in the back of my mind was weighing advantages and disadvantages of being his friend. I wanted to go to group meditation because I knew it would help my insomnia. Its all well and good but these motivations are still mind-oriented, not heart-oriented. That is not the man I want to be.

I know what I have to work on.

A good day today

So far its been a good day today. I saw the new X-men movie. I was certainly impressed by the immense detail and expression that went into its production. I enjoyed the complexity of the movie as well. A wrong turn or a misstep could even send the characters into a darker future than before.  The concept of robots known as 'Sentinels' that could adapt to fight anything also greatly intrigued me. I wanted to see the execution of such a concept because it seemed unlikely. So to be believable they would have to do a good job in showcasing the adaptive power of said robots, which they succeeded in doing, in my opinion.

As always, Magneto was incredibly powerful and not to be underestimated. If you look at the way he has acted in the previous movies, it should come as no surprise that given the chance, he would try to unite mutants against what he perceived to be "the human threat" .


Some of the interviews that were done about the movie were also quite memorable,  especially the one done with Patrick Stewart where he talks about his message for his younger self.

Late night thoughts.

Sometimes working late can really take its toll on you. Don't let anyone tell you an application support engineer's job is easy. 5 hours and 4 minutes of a possible business impacting issue plus another 45 minutes writing up the incident report will keep you much later than planned. Its kind of quiet and lonely at night, I wish there were more people to talk to during this time, because that is how I spent most of it. You almost sense that the world is moving in a certain direction and by staying up you are resisting the natural flow of reality. Its quite surreal at times.

My work shift can be quite draining - sucking the energy right out of you. It can leave you unable to think carefully and make good judgement calls.  It uses clarity as its fuel and burns the mind given enough time.
Perhaps I am being too negative, but  In my current state, I don't feel physically prepared quite enough for it.

 So what's left? Late night anime, sore eyes, and disappointing relationships.
Eh, its not quite that bad, but yeah.

Gaming with Canadians and language

I would like to say it hasn't changed me, but that wouldn't be very honest on my part. I am learning French. Most of the time now when I am on listening on our Ventrillo server it is to my friends speaking French. I am watching Canadian educational videos as well. But what is a language anyway? Is is just a means of expression? I would like to think so. But apparently its more than just that. Although the underlying humans just trying to be themselves and have fun and enjoy life is the same, I can clearly sense there are advantages and disadvantages to certain languages as means of expressing certain kind of experiences. Not so unlike programming languages actually. Japanese for example has more ways to be polite than you can shake a stick at. For each verb there is a plain and polite form. On top of that there are polite verbs that replace regular verbs that have a plain and polite forms. In addition, there are helping verbs that make the sentence more polite. Is that everything? Nope! There are words for the word 'you' that are either polite or rude or anything in between.

So, what about French? Well, I haven't dived too deeply into the grammar, but at the base level you can have very different sounds representing the same idea in English. I would go further to say there are certain kinds of sounds that are more common or more emphasized in each different language. I believe we as humans unconsciously associate certain combinations of sounds and as familiar and acceptable. When we are placed in an environment where the sounds are not what we associate with normal, we can become uncomfortable. So does the uncomfortability reveal an aspect of myself that I have not yet accepted? Maybe but its not something I could hope to put into words. Am I learning French to become comfortable with these sounds? Yes, but also so I can understand my friends.

So what about gaming? Well the truth is its fun - especially with friends. And the language doesn't matter so much, only the attitude of the people you play with.