Happy St. Patrick's Day

Rules for St. Patrick's Day:

1. Drink lots of Guinness.
2. Have fun.
3. More Guinness.
4. Wear green!
5. Meet Smithwick, Bailey and Jameson.
   
6. Be safe.
7. Guinness!
   

Not necessarily in that order... You get the point.

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Now playing: Dropkick Murphys - The Rocky Road To Dublin
via FoxyTunes

Onion Rings

The other day, I was invited to a friend's house for a Spring Break cookout. He grilled buffalo wings and I fried up some onion rings. Wings and rings! It was good times. And in typical tradition, I made way too much food.

The recipe is quite simple, but really? You don't need anything else. Onion rings shouldn't be overly complicated. I like them stringy and messy and delicious with lots of ketchup and these were perfect. The only problem was in using the fryer I borrowed from my mom. I put way too many in the basket at a time. It was pretty much impossible to stir and the result was a collection of onion ring bricks. We tore into them anyway and everyone loved it.


One thing I substituted: I used chipotle chili pepper powder instead of the cayenne pepper in the recipe. I just happened to have it on hand - it worked well enough. To be honest, I'm not sure if there's much of a difference as I'm not into spicy food that much.

If... no, when I make these again, I'll probably just use a large pan. You'd probably have a lot more control over the rings that way so they won't stick together. The recipe (with one onion) will serve 4-5 pretty easily depending on the size of the onion. Or you can use two like in the picture and have a ton leftover. They were good the next day, too. Oh, one more note, when she says to go nuts with the pepper grinder, do it! You need an awful lot before it shows up in the flavor.

Recipe courtesy The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Go check her site out; I've found a ton of recipes I've bookmarked to try sometime.

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Now playing: Gogol Bordello - Smarkatch
via FoxyTunes

Mr. T is the "T" in I.T.

This is it, my friends. The shining pinnacle of everything awesome I've had the fortune to witness, compressed in a 3-minute, 23-second video.



There's nothing more to say.

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Now playing: Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
via FoxyTunes

Typefaces & Misc

This is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

When I was big into graphic design (seems like ages ago) I would search for hours on end for just the right set of characters for what I was making. However, I've never actually purchased any. All the typefaces I've used were available for free. I sort of feel bad about that; I mean, I don't even have Helvetica! That's pretty much a sin for typeface enthusiasts.

Thanks to David Malki ! for the link.

My love for typefaces goes hand in hand with my fondness of calligraphy. I've even created a couple calligraphy hands just for fun. At one point I looked into turning it into an actual typeface. It seemed like a lot of work at the time, but maybe there are some different tools available now. I might check it out again now that I'm all interested. If I have time. That seems to be in short supply these days.

In other news, HurleyCon went well! I didn't end up with my own table, but I helped set up, tear down, and I ran the concession table pretty much all day. My original plan was to sell chainmail jewelry, but my partner in crime couldn't make it, so we just scrapped the idea. Next year I'll be ready though. I didn't have enough time to make enough pieces for an entire table myself. I certainly tried though! (That is mainly why I haven't been blogging lately).

At the convention, I was able to hang out with some of the artists I knew, and I met some new ones. Several were coloring their artwork with watercolor and it looked amazing! So now I have a renewed interest in drawing and coloring. I got a watercolor starter kit to try it out and see if I like it. I sketched something up really quick and took the paints to it. For a first try I don't think it's too bad! The ink smeared from the eraser though, so it looks kinda bad. I definitely need to work on technique (especially evenness) with the paint. Also, I need to develop a feel for how much of a color I need to mix up for a certain part. Needing more purple when all you've got is red and blue and the section is only half done is bad news.

More news and maybe some pictures soon!

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Now playing: Polysics - I My Me Mine
via FoxyTunes