Nova in November

Just when I think some sort of routine has been established, it gets thrown out the window :p I will slowly blog about the pregnancy and birth, but it's going to take a while.

In the meantime, I'm happy to report that Nova is over 6 months old, and we've just started subjecting him to solid food.
From the expression on his face I think he wasn't impressed, LoL!

Since the hubs is working on Thanksgiving this year, we are unable to show Nova off to his paternal relatives who have yet to meet him. Hopefully we'll have the occasion to do so before next Thanksgiving!!

For all those who celebrate, have a great Turkey Day! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Audio: ticked off at telemarketers!

(As I wrote this, I felt the need to SAY what I was writing... it took me the whole frigging day to figure out how to record *and* how to upload it onto the blog. Ugh! But I managed! Yay! So to listen to this post, click here! (Then click play on the Yahoo!MediaPlayer console) Enjoy!

When we moved to Springfield over 2 years ago, we very quickly found out that the phone number the phone company gave us had previously been 'owned' by one "Morten Harket" (not his real name, obviously) (anyone actually know who this is? -- No Googling!!).

Reverse Look Up told me that Mr Harket was a rather old person who lived in downtown Springfield, while all the telemarketing calls we received for him indicated he suffered from poor health. I speculated that he had passed away recently, and that the phone company had immediately recycled his number instead of letting it 'cool' for a bit.

At first it was just annoying, getting all these calls for Morten. I would politely say that we just got assigned the number; no, I have no idea how to contact him; please remove his name and number from your database. Most callers obliged.

One set of callers, however...

These were the diabetes-related calls.

And they kept calling.

The calls would come from 'blocked' numbers. The person on the other end was invariably Indian (which by itself wasn't an issue, don't get me wrong) who often seemed to be calling from his local coffee shop or something. Often he'd be having a conversation with someone else while making the call, and would start the conversation with me all laugh-y and unprofessional-like. And as soon as I said that "this number is no longer associated with that person, so please update your database accordingly," he'd go, "Oh. Are *you* diabetic, ma'am?" "Anyone in your family?" and really insist on just digging for information. Umm yeah, like I'm going to allow that. So *I* would dig in and say "Please just remove this name and number from your database." They in turn would insist on knowing my name, as if they couldn't move forward without that bit of information.

I refuse, they insist, and round and round we'd go.

Exasperated, I've asked to speak to their supervisor before, only to be told that they don't have a supervisor. And they won't give me their name or any information about their operation unless I tell them my name first. How fucking childish is that?

anyway...

I have NO IDEA what they are selling, I never let them get to their spiel. Excuse me for insisting that "this is not the diabetic you are looking for; move along, move along."

The second-to-last call received from this ilk was a few months back, and it was a bad one. After going through the whole rigmarole of 'please remove Morten Harket's name and number from your database' the guy kept insisting on wanting to know my name, and I refused to furnish it; he kept insisting, I kept refusing, always repeating "please just remove this name and phone number from your records", then he turned nasty andsarcastic asking "So, you don't have a name, is it?", or "Your name is "Doesn't matter", is it?". I actually used the f-word on him and hung up.

Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've had to field such calls.

Until yesterday.

And this call, my friends, has upped my anger levels to greater heights, because ... wait for it... they asked for "Kosh Naranek, who according to our records, is diabetic."

What. The. Fuck.

[I immediately figured that they finally got Morten Harket's name off the list, but left the phone number... and some genius did a reverse look-up of the number, got Kosh's name, and just put his name where Morten Harket's was]

I was pissed.

Big big.

I was very curt about "Your records are wrong. He is not diabetic, I am not diabetic. No one in our family is diabetic."

One small funny thing during this recent conversation? The guy's weird Brit/American accent slowly degenerated into an Indian accent.

The guy kept asking 'Are you sure no one is diabetic?"

And hey, whaddaya know, the guy kept asking for my name.

After receiving nothing but "No"s from me, he had the gall to ask "Where is Kosh?" when I'd already said at the beginning of the call that he was not available.

Then he asked for my name again, saying "I already have Kosh Naranek's name, may I have your name too?".

"Dude. You already have more information than you should ever have. You are also wasting my time and have invaded my privacy enough. You have no need for my name, and I am not giving it to you. For the tenth time, please just remove this name and number from your database."

I am only calling you for the first time, ma'am. (D'oh! Hyperbole was LOST on this one!)
Can I please have your name?
What's your name, ma'am?
Come on, what's your name?

"I am not giving you my name. Please remove my husband's name and phone number from your database. I'm hanging up now."

Then came this gem: I would luuuurve to know your name.

"Wha? Dude, you have got to behave-- you know what, it doesn't matter. I'm hanging up now, goodbye."

Bloody hell.

They all have this pseudo-flirty slimy attitude, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way... probably because I was so pissed at them now having Kosh's name in their system.

I think we are just gonna have to put our number on the Do Not Call list *and* screen all our calls, because I do NOT want to have to deal with these %$(*-ers again.

I just wish I knew where to lodge a complaint, not that I have any information about them apart from what I've just shared with y'all...

Of course, I could use the honey instead of vinegar route the next time, and get them to speak their spiel, and maybe get a name & phone number to call back because after all, my husband is the person they really wanna talk to ... and THEN I'd have somewhere to start ... ... although I don't know what I'd do next without a Garcia or a McGee around to dig for me, eh?

Yeah.

I really really hate these guys.

What about you?
Have you gotten similar calls?
Wanna tell me how you dealt with them?

The Nova Story: Chapter One: finding out

Back in October 2010 [HOLY CRAP THAT WAS A YEAR AGO ALREADY??!!], I thought I'd pulled a groin muscle or something, I was having these cramp-like twinges in the lower abdominal region. I also found myself cupping my boobs a lot, much to Kosh's amusement. Then said boobs started getting really sore.

It then occurred to me that it had been a while since my last period ... checked my calendar, counted forward, and whaddaya know, I was overdue for some bleedage.

The timing of this epiphany could have been better: Kosh was particularly stressed because he'd had a very long day and was having to pull an all-nighter for a presentation the next morning. I didn't want to add to/detract from his goings-on right then. So I kept my suspicion silent. After sending him to work in the early morning, I stopped by the local grocery store for some pregnancy tests.

Came home, peed in a cup and did the necessary.

And this is what greeted me.



If I'd had a proper smart phone, I'd have sent Kosh this pic. Instead, all I could do was send the following text message: "Ummmmm... guess what?"

He guessed right away :)

[Hmmmm, maybe we should have him guest post to say how he knew?]

Apples!

I'm supposed to be studying & reviewing for my Massage Therapy board exam... so it makes *total* sense that I'm putting together this apples-to-apples comparison of my big 'lil man instead. [click to embiggen the pix]

First, from a few weeks ago, we have what I thought was an apples-to-apples comparison, only to realise it might more properly be termed a Fuji to McIntosh comparison:The monkey swing is about the only constant: the comparison is still valid, but the geek in me wanted to reduce the 'noise' and produce what might be called a Gala to Gala comparison:
*grin!* The geek in me is satisfied, and I hope my few readers out there are mollified by these pix, making up for my continued blog absence.

I *will* be back!

Goodbye, boobjuice

It's been an uphill battle almost from the start.

I had no idea you could attempt to put newly-born babies to breast. Of course, when Nova was born, he was 6 weeks early, and went from my vajayjay into the hands of the neonatalists. Once they were done assessing him they asked if I wanted him on my chest - I hadn't even been sure if I'd be allowed to hold him at all. He was wrapped up, and I had a gown on.. I also had no idea what to do, so he just stayed on my chest. I remember remarking on how heavy he felt. So we missed out on initial skin-on-skin *and* immediate suckling. Did he had an oxygen mask on? I think so. I don't recall.

I don't remember *when* it was that we first tried getting him to nurse, but I do remember how he struggled a bit and the nurse immediately brandished a nipple shield and declared he needed it. That kinda set him and me up for expecting him to not nurse, y'know?

I also remember [another?] nurse being so aggressive about trying to get Nova to latch, by holding his head/neck and really roughly waggling his head up and down into my boob, and Kosh and I sat shell-shocked, totally unable to process what was going on.

I also remember that I didn't even start pumping until about 24hrs after Nova was born, because I had no idea what to do, and hey whaddaya know, I musta slipped through the cracks of the lactation consultants' system. They say the first few days are vital in establishing the necessary connections within the mammary tissue. Ummm, oops?

No one told us that we could get one month's free rental of a breast pump... not until Kosh mentioned to a NICU nurse that I was trying to pump but the manual pump was really a pain. Two days after I was discharged. Four days after Nova was born. We got the pump the next day.

Nova was in the NICU for 10 days. Most of the time, he underwent phototherapy, and there were strict instructions as to how long he could be taken off of the lights for feedings. Max 30mins, but at one point it was max 15mins. Fifteen minutes. To try to put a days-old 6-week-early baby to breast PLUS bottlefeed the required volume of food. To say that visits were stressful is putting it mildly.

Already early on, despite my milk having come in, I was not producing enough. When his feed volume was upped to 2 oz/feed, they already started supplementing with formula (without telling us! Sure, they 'warned' us that they would need to start supplementing with formula, but as far as I am concerned, I didn't pick up on the immediacy).

While Nova was in the NICU, I *was* able to pump on a regular basis. I think I pumped about 6-8 times a day (later I found out I should have been doing every TWO hours... but again, I musta slipped through the cracks... I figured I should pump at the same frequency that they were feeding him at the NICU: every 3 hours), and I actually got up to almost TWO ounces PER BOOB at my best.

Once he came home, though...

by the time he came home, I had convinced myself that he wasn't able to nurse properly, that it wasn't worth the effort to sit and try to get him to latch PLUS supplementing with a bottle (either pumped boobjuice or formula)... especially when he was also crying a lot, and I had no idea how to handle him, and I was doing this all totally solo.... .... .... and the little downtime I had in between feedings I chose to unwind on the computer rather than tie myself for another 20mins to the frigging breastpump

... so the pumping suffered ...

At six weeks I asked for and got belated help from a lactation consultant: the advice felt like a step backward because I was supposed to nurse nova every 2 hours then supplement with 2oz boobjuice/formula then pump for 15mins, while by that time Nova was on a 3(-ish) hour interval. Also, that entire routine would take almost 1.5hours, leaving me with about 30mins before the entire rigmarole was supposed to begin all over again.

But it did get my milk back up a little... and [after a LOT of coaxing] I could get Nova to latch on... [and later, he'd latch on without the nipple shield, yay!!]

... but once again ... the whole feeding thing required so many things upfront: I had to prepare the bottle first [either prep fresh formula, or warm up refrigerated formula or boobjuice], then try to nurse, then feed him the bottle, then try to burp him, then be able to leave him so I could clean up and pump... then clean up the pump equipment...

.. oh and did I mention that he gets upset really fast when he's not fed? And that he doesn't give much warning that he's hungry? I began skipping the nursing step and would just shove the bottle in his mouth (once I managed to get it prepared) rather than try to nurse him, then deal with more screaming while I got the bottle ready.

Does that even make sense to anyone? It made sense to me, anyway. Anything to make the screaming stop sooner, longer.

and between all this I was supposed to sleep? Eat? Do laundry? Stay sane?

... and I've not covered the fact that for the longest time, Nova was pure gremlin, turning into a screaming monster between midnight and 6am most nights. That I just could NOT burp him and therefore he'd spit up SO MUCH, EVERY TIME.

... there was so much going on, the last thing I wanted to do once I had any down time was to submit to getting my boobs pumped.

so I pumped less and less often each day

and so we then find us about 3.5months into Nova's time here, with boobs that produce barely 3mLs each when pumped...

... today was the final straw, though.... at the weekly moms' breastfeeding support group session where we get to do a before/after weighing, Nova spent a good 20mins on each boob, suckling away, and I could have sworn he took some good swallows like he usually does, so I was expecting we'd have a 10g gain, as usual ... but he had ZERO weight gain to show for it... zero ...

that's been popping in and out of my head all day ... zero gain ...

all is not lost, if I can commit to pumping the hell out of my boobs every two hours all over again.

I can't.

I have tried. I can't.

I've popped fenugreek; I've drunk nursing tea; I am even taking some mammary health pills made from cow boobs or something. Unfortunately I am also taking anti-histamines for my allergies. Depending who you believe, the anti-histamines dry me up, or don't. I'm guessing for me they cancel out whatever benefits I may be getting from these supplements.

There *is* a drug option. But Kosh is leery about going that route, citing concerns about side effects. I step back and look at myself, and agree that I don't want to mess with my body even more than I already have.

I've sought help/advice from a few different/alternative sources/approaches, and they all point to my liver.

What I will do then is work on cleansing my system, especially my liver. This will require losing weight, exercising more, eating better... but I will also be consulting an acupuncturist... and working on my own long-neglected meditation and foot-soaking...

... in the hopes that whatever obstacles to breastfeeding / breastmilk production that come from *me*, I will have tackled and cleared so that *if* Nova ever gets a little brother or sister, we'll have a more successful breastfeeding effort.

and if you read this all the way through, wow, thank you :) I'm not going back to reread it until after I hit publish, I know it's going to be a rather incoherent mishmash of thoughts :p My eyes are raw, but my heart is slightly less broken. Or, I guess I've managed to blunt the edges of the pieces a little bit.

I still intend on blogging about the whole hospital and birth experience; I just had to let this out first.

Ciao.

more Nova Naranek news

Yikes, I really do NOT have the frame of mind to be blogging nowadays... I'm having enough trouble getting the kid on a regular feeding schedule, and me on a pumping schedule. As a result, milk supply has totally dwindled since we brought the kid home from the NICU, resulting in stress, resulting in dwindling supplies, ... ... ugh. And I have a LOT of stuff to fill y'all in on... and even if my few readers aren't interested in the details, I do want to document my thoughts on the whole pre- ante- and post-natal experience. You have been warned!

But anyway... here's my Twitter birth announcement from a few weeks ago:

That's right, Nova's a boy!

^^ Here he is at about 2 weeks.

I'm totally biased, of course, but I think he's a handsome cutie pie :)

As threatened, more detailed reminiscing in future posts.

Until then, ciao!

Nova news: of PROMs and curveballs

I recently experienced a PROM, and no, I'm not talking about that American high school rite-of-passage, but Premature Rupture Of the Membranes... or, in layman's terms, my water broke!

Now, when you're really close to your due date, this breaking of water thing is good, signaling the start of labor and delivery.

But when you're more than two months away from said due date? Not so good.

Perhaps lil' Nova was impatient to get out and play with all the goodies he/she had collected from the baby shower we'd just had ... or ... since a few other expectant mothers also experienced the same thing on the same day, perhaps all the weird weather and variable barometric pressure impacted these membranes somewhat ... or it could just be due to the phase of the moon, who knows... there's no real way to tell why it happened, only that it did.

These past few days have been quite an experience. It is a huge relief to be past the critical first 48 hours though, and it looks like we will be settling into a waiting game / holding pattern. Nova is still a-pickling inside me, and the goal is to keep him/her there for as long as possible up till 34wks: if I've not gone into labor naturally by then, they'll induce me.

No I won't tell you how far along I am. ... suffice to say I'm marveling at this curveball life just threw at us: from having more than two months to prepare for Nova's arrival, we now might meet the tyke in just a few weeks' time.

And between now and then, I will be in hospital, under the watchful eye(s) of relevant medical professionals.
In the meantime, poor Kosh has to split himself between work, home/cat and me PLUS get the apartment ready for Nova.
In many ways, I have it easy ... for the moment, anyway!

So do send 'stay put' thoughts to Nova, k?

My next update here might not be until Nova appears.

Ciao!

Teddy Bear, how long you been out there?

Yesterday I decided that in-the-oven Nova needed to be properly exposed to all things Meat Loaf, so I loaded Bat II and later Bat I to sing along to while I iced my hands (that's another post). Then I went looking for any Meat Loaf tour dates, just for the heck of it (Why is he spending the first half of August, Sept & October in Blackpool UK??): that took me from the official Meat Loaf fan site to the *real* Meat Loaf Facebook page, which featured two songs from his latest album HANG COOL TEDDY BEAR which came out last May.

Wait, whattt? Meat's got a new album out? Where was I?

Oh. I was doing my Malaysia/Singapore trip, nursing a sprained ankle, etc etc.
Not a real excuse, but I'll take it.

I have since "liked" the real Meat Loaf on FB, so I should be on top of things, yay!

And I'm now debating getting my hands on the album. Well, the CD, anyway. I'm old-ish school, can't imagine just buying the MP3s... there's something about a complete album: not just the individual songs, but how they are arranged and the larger story they tell...

Anyways, so Los Angeloser is the song that got me all anguished over having missed out on Mr Loaf's latest album. Today I looked for/found the official music video for it. Umm... I don't quite get it... lots of eye candy if you're a guy, I guess. Still a great and funny song tho.

(the type of car he drives? A *shit* car. just fyi)

And now I'm leveraging YouTube for songs from Teddy Bear to give me an idea of whether I really do want to Hang Cool with it or not. And just because, here's a list of links for you, dear reader, in case you too are interested (most of the "vids" are just the album artwork with the track playing).

1. Peace On Earth
2. Living On The Outside
3. Los Angeloser
4. If I Can't Have You
5. Love Is Not Real/Next Time You Stab Me in the Back
6. Like A Rose (feat. Jack Black) (starts off sounding like You Gotta Fight for your Right to Party)
7. Did You Ever Love Somebody
8. Song Of Madness
9. Running Away From Me
10. Let's Be In Love
11. If It Rains
12. Elvis In Vegas

(NOTE: The import / special edition / explicit albums have an additional track: California Isn't Big Enough ... imo it's so NOT worth shelling out the extra dough for the one song... esp when it kinda riles up my prudishness :p "I can barely fit my dick in my pants"? Really?)

So, about the overall story of the album... Meh... Right now I'll say it starts off just okay, picks up once you hit Los Angeloser, but a few songs later it flounders a LOT before starting to pick back up in the last two songs. The jury is still out about whether i *really* want to own this album, or actually go the cherry picking route.

What about you?

Being Nosy?

Hi everyone!

According to sitemeter, I have a steady 130-ish visitors per week to this site, even when I've not posted anything in forever. So whoever you are, I thank you, all 130-ish of you!

And here's an update for ya!

I actually have lots to blog about... but as you may know, I have a blur wobbly line drawn in the sand about how much personal stuff to share publicly on this blog, just because, well, sometimes I can be paranoid schizophrenic psycho yeah (no not really) (that's just what they're saying about me). As such, I've been leaning more heavily on a seemingly-transient medium like Twitter, and seemingly-private(ish) medium like Facebook. What? It makes total sense. Maybe. LoL!

But hey, I'm now breaking the main/biggest news here, whee!

I have a parasite in my belly!
.. and it has my nose!!
(just to point out the obvious: the noses, from top to bottom, are me, Nova, Kosh)

Going with a temporary gender-neutral (to me, anyway) alliterative name, we're referring to it as Nova Naranek online, to match this internet moniker. We should be meeting the munchkin in mid/end June. Yes, we're in the home 'stretch' now.

Feel free to squeee in the comments :)

An explanation for #Jan25, and a NSFW Tasmanian aside

Explaining the Egyptian revolution to Americans through a medium they all understand -- a Hollywood movie that involves Egypt! Found this via Twitter and really want to spread it around. Unfortunately Blogger doesn't seem happy with the huge image (about 600 x 6500, 2MB), and all my attempts to reduce its size renders it blur and unreadable. So please follow this thumbnail instead to the image's location on TwitPic.


Interestingly, the creator of this piece is @furrygirl, who has gained a lot of followers since this emerged. Her reaction and caution: Warning: I'm a pornographer & atheist, & don't usually tweet politics. I am *NOT* work safe.

... and that segues right into something I've been wanting to share, and had no idea this #Jan25 post would give me that transition opportunity. The connection here is NSFW. Majorly NSFW. NSFW means NOT SAFE FOR WORK, in case you didn't know.

Words can't really describe this video. Just watch. And boys, snap those jaws back into place please!

(lyrics)

This. This is the woman Neil Gaiman married.

Wow!

Foody Friday: quiche galore

The more I make quiche, the more I love just how versatile it is. It's a breakfast equivalent of nasi goreng (fried rice) in the sense that you can throw in whatever's available at the moment, you know, finish off leftovers and such. I also recently tried a targeted quiche, i.e. trying to actually replicate a certain taste/combination.

Here's a list of my recent quiche permutations:

• Leftover slow-cooked Catalina Cranberry Chicken (a recipe from mochamomma) with spinach and other veggies. This was particularly hearty and tasty: having flavorful chicken really helps pull it all together!
• Spinach, artichoke & diced tomatoes with habañeros. This was my first try ever at artichokes. I used the canned variety. I knew it would complement the spinach. I made mega-cheesy because this was for the potluck end-of-semester "party" for my massage course. It was a hit.
• Spinach, artichoke & orange peppers. I felt bad because Kosh had missed out on the goodness of the previous quiche, so I made this one for him :) I'd only used half of the canned artichoke (kinda on purpose), and while I was out of diced tomatoes, the peppers worked just as well. I eased up on using an entire bag of shredded cheese tho, LoL!
• Spinach, orange peppers, onions & hot giardiniera relish. I was still in a quiche mood (hey let's face it, it's real easy to make, it's really hard to ruin, and I love love love eggy breakfast-type dishes!), so this was a more 'normal' quiche, i.e. throwing together what I happened to have on hand. Yes, my quiches tend to be vegetarian.
• Philly Cheesesteak Quiche. My massage classmate speculated about making one of these, so I surprised her with one for her birthday. I'll expand on it below.
• Crustless veggie quiche. After a few weeks off (I *did* get tired of quiche after a while, LoL!), and after deciding I needed to cut some unnecessary refined carbs (i.e. the crust) out of my diet, I tried my hand at a crustless quiche. I also used a whole lot more egg whites than I did whole eggs. It turned out fine, but looked a bit ...small... and the crust really did lend a nice touch to the overall taste and composition, so in this case something was missing... I'll have to experiment a little bit more with this, and also figure out the difference between this and a fritata :)

Okay... so now... let's delve a bit into the Philly Cheesesteak Quiche, shall we?

I found this recipe, and totally tweaked it :)

I started by attempting to carmelize half a white onion, sliced. Ended up just kinda burning the heck out of the onion instead :p Made that the first layer, followed by thinly sliced green peppers, and the drained contents of a small can of mushrooms. For the beef, I used two portions of what I found at Walmart. I kinda burned the things too, and had difficulty getting them to separate out into individual strips. Oops!


In the photo above you see the layers of onion, peppers, 'shrooms, beef *and* some philly cream cheese that I decided would add something unique to the dish.



When researching this dish, I found out that Philly Cheesesteak sammiches are made with provolone cheese. Well, either that or Cheese Whiz (is that the stuff that comes in a "spray can" like whipped cream?) (ugh!), it seems. So I found some sliced sharp/strong provolone, cut 'em into strips, and that made another layer.



Then I remembered I'd intended to add some shredded cheddar cheese BEFORE the sliced cheese. Oh well. So that went on top. Then in went the egg and half-and-half combo, and the dish was popped into the oven (350F) for 45 mins.

It came out looking just like any other quiche...
... and this is how it was delivered to the birthday girl.

I was really anxious about not only giving away a total experiment (which included kinda burned onions *and* beef!), but giving it away as someone's birthday present to boot! Thankfully she said it was good, and that everyone who had a slice gave rave reviews (she only got to eat perhaps a sixth of the dish, because of those other mouths, poor thing!).

I still have two portions of the frozen philly-style steaks: whether I do another round of PCS quiche, or try to fix an actual Philly cheesesteak sammich for Kosh & myself, we'll have to see... in the meantime, if you try your hand at your own Philly Cheesesteak Quiche, do drop by and tell me about it, k?

Have a great weekend!

Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon

This review of Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon is part of the 2011 Stephen King and Read Me Baby One More Time Challenges.



This is a tale targeted towards kids. It reads like a fairy tale. The narrator is all too present, too prominent, dropping too many hints of "oh if only so-and-so knew of the room full of such-and-suches, would it have made a difference? I'll let you decide," that might be amusing at first, but irritating after a while.

That said, I rather enjoyed this book.

Stephen King obviously had his Dark Tower characters on his mind when writing this: the land is named Delain (very similar to Roland Deschain's last name, don't you think?); the ruler is Good King Roland (no link or relation to our Roland Deschain except for the name, though); but best of all, it features Randall Flagg as the bad guy. We learn a LOT about Flagg through this tale, and for that alone I think my digression from the Dark Tower series to this book was no mistake.

In fact, reading this BEFORE The Gunslinger might be a good strategy for people who want to approach the Dark Tower indirectly: you might then have a better feel for the person with whom Roland finally palavers at the end of The Gunslinger.

But back to The Eyes of the Dragon. The plot is simple: Randall Flagg has served as advisor/magician to Good King Roland and one or two rulers before him (and that's just this iteration!), but his objective is always to induce chaos, plans that will be thwarted if Roland's first-born, Peter, takes the throne. Thomas, the second-born, is so much more flawed, malleable, corruptible. What unfolds then is what you would expect: the king is poisoned, Peter is found guilty and imprisoned for life in the tallest tower, Thomas is crowned King, and Flagg gets free reign in steadily steering the land into anarchy. Can Peter escape? Save his land? Rid Delain of Flagg? The narrator implies he can, but strings the tale out quite a bit until you find out how.

Mentioned without really being expanded on is the concept of the White, the 'good' force that works subtly counter to the Black of which Flagg is but one representative. This is something that is expounded more in The Stand, in case you were interested in what Mr King was trying to say. Do check it out too, if you haven't already.

One thing I found interesting was how Thomas was described: not that great with his studies, neither very creative nor intuitive, someone who kinda plodded along the best he knew how ... these were about the same things said of Roland Deschain. Of course, one was raised in the shadow of his never-do-wrong brother while the other had integrity, loyalty and pride beat into him from an early age, it's no wonder they turned out very different... but think about it: was Mr King experimenting with a "What if" scenario where our Roland Deschain had from early on been in the thrall of Flagg? Those who have read this recently: any opinions?

For the record, this is at least the second, if not third, time I've read this book. I'm guessing once during my college years (the 90's), at the end of my work career (mid-00's), and now.

I'll be taking a short break from rereading Stephen King because my massage therapy classes have just started up again, so I should get to reviewing stuff before class, and already get moving on assignment we've already been given. Ugh. Hopefully I'll plow through The Drawing of the Three during the MLK Jr long weekend.

Until then: happy reading!

Stephen King's The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I)

This review of Stephen King's The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I) is part of the 2011 Stephen King and Read Me Baby One More Time Challenges.



The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. It is in this first sentence that we already meet Roland Deschain, formerly of Gilead, in pursuit of his old enemy Marten (or Walter, or Randall Flagg, or ...). As the chase continues, we are treated to some of Roland's backstory, whether the relatively recent encounter with the townspeople of Tull, or events of his childhood that set his feet upon the path he now walks.

And if you'd not come to the conclusion already, once the events surrounding Jake the boy from New York found at the Way Station unfold to their (end), you wouldn't be wrong to dislike Roland a litte, or at least to see him not as a cookie cutter hero, but a real man; a hard man; a man forged of bullets, murder, pride, vengeance; a man of unparalleled focus and intensity. A man on a mission.

By the time the gunslinger and the man in black finish their palaver, I think it's safe to say readers will be intrigued by what has been put forth: what is this Dark Tower? Who is the man in black's master, who could grant virtual immortality to the furthest of his minions, and only by visiting through dreams? What this thing about worlds having moved on? What did Jake mean when he stated Go then. There are other worlds than these.?

Then pick up book II - The Drawing of The Three, and prepare to yourself be drawn even further into Roland's world.

ADDITIONAL NOTES for those who have already read the book:
I read the "revised and expanded throughout" version, but with the "original" version on hand to compare and contrast some passages. I'm sure somewhere online someone has done just that, and provided exhaustive analysis of what was changed and why between the 1982 and 2003 editions. Here I'll just note two main things that I made a point to look up.

The first was in Tull, when the pianist Sheb comes bursting in on Roland and Alice in a blind jealous rage. In the revised version, Roland recognises him as someone who was involved in what went on in Meijis. I remember in Book IV that the early (if not earliest) encounters between Roland's ka-tet and the bad guys of Neijis occur at a pub where were have someone plinking away at the keyboards... I guess that was also Sheb? I'll find out/confirm it once I get to Wizard and Glass :)

The second actually covers many things, but they all occur during the palaver between Roland and the man in black during that enchanted night. The main thing that was changed was that Marten *was* Walter who in turn *was* the man in black (in the original, Walter was the man in black, but Marten was someone else, someone Roland later tracked and killed). That the man in black's master was Maerlyn, who lived backwards in time, was nixed: instead he is Legion, and that's about it. No mention about the Beast that lives in / guards the Tower.

These amendments definitely help tidy things up a bit: the confusion about Marten/Walter was always at the back of my hubby's head, so when I was done with the reread, we sat down and discussed the changes, he with his notes he'd made of Books I - IV, and me with the two versions to flip between and quote from. Major quality time, I tell ya! No, I'm being neither sarcastic nor facetious. I've mentioned before that Stephen King, specifically the Dark Tower series, was one of the subjects we bonded over way back when we were dating. So yesterday's discussion was a great throwback to our younger days :)

Next, I picked up The Eyes of the Dragon: that review will be up in a few days... stay tuned!

Foody Friday: Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas

Yes, that's quite a mouthful. But tastes great! Earlier this week, I was on the hunt for a recipe that would use the cans of black beans and chickpeas I'd had in the cupboard for ages, and finally decided on this Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas because I had most of the ingredients on hand, and those that I didn't, well, I'd just do without.

Here's a crappy picture of the finished product:

And here's how I prepared the dish:

Recipe called for heating 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, then adding 1/2 clove garlic, minced, stirring for a minute.
IRL, I accidentally poured a lot of oil (I use Smart Balance) -- oops! -- into a medium saucepan. Added a LOT of minced garlic from the bottle plus half a red onion, diced. Stirred at medium/high heat for a while, until the onions were translucent.

Recipe called for stirring in 1/2 cup of uncooked basmati rice; 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander; and 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric and cayenne pepper. After 5 mins, add 2 cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, then cover & simmer for 20 mins.
IRL, I had the uncooked (brown) basmati rice, but threw together a heaping teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, chili powder and allspice altogether with the chicken stock. Robbed it of that 5mins of non-stock cooking. Oh well! Brought it all to a boil, then reduced heat and covered. It took a lot longer than 20mins for the rice to be cooked: perhaps as long as 40mins!

Recipe called for placing 3/4lb ground turkey in a skillet over medium heat, and cooking until evenly brown.
IRL, I used a package of MorningStar Farms fake ground beef in a huge pot/saucepan, and flavored liberally with fish sauce as it heated up.

Recipe called for gently mixing the turkey, drained & rinsed garbanzo beans & black beans, (and optional cilantro, parsley, and pine nuts) into the cooked rice.
IRL, I added the beans and a handful of spinach leaves to the cooked fake meat, and made sure to heat them all up well. Then I added the rice to the meat/bean/veg mixture, and stirred well.

Recipe called for seasoning with salt and pepper.
IRL, I almost never do this step, just as a matter of principle. In this case, it really wasn't needed anyway: I think the fish sauce was more than salty enough to make up for any other taste deficiencies there might have been in this dish!

Kosh liked it, but felt something was missing, ".. like a big chunk of meat." If I make this again, I might use ground lamb instead (Kosh's eyes totally lit up at that statement, so I think I'm on the right track LoL!), it would fit with the region's choice of dead animal anyway, right?

WARNING: I was farting up a storm no thanks to the beans, so if you're planning on making this, just be aware, k? :p

Happy Friday, and have a great weekend!