Author: Joey deVilla

Here’s a gift for the person who can see the cloud attached to every silver lining: a mug with a marking to tell you when it’s half-empty:

Here’s a little diversion for St. Patrick’s Day — a little quiz where you determine whether some fact is about St. Patrick (who according to legend rid Ireland of its snakes) or Samuel L. Jackson (who starred in Snakes on a Plane). Download Snakes on an Island [1.5MB PDF].

Here’s a video that marries two guilty pleasures of mine: Star Trek and Nine Inch Nails, plus one thing that I find amusing from a distance (sometimes, a very great distance): slash fiction.

In this video, which recontextualizes footage from the original Star Trek series and uses Nine Inch Nails’ Closer as background music, the creators ask the question “What if they hadn’t made it to Vulcan on Time?”.

(For those of you who don’t get the reference, there’s an episode titled Amok Time in which Spock experiences the pon farr, the Vulcan mating urge that they must answer once every seven years. If they don’t mate during the pon farr, they die. In the episode, Spock gets his “seven-year” itch at the same time the Enterprise is called to attend an important ceremony on Altair IV, making it impossible for Spock to get to Vulcan to get it on with the woman promised to him. Hilarity ensues.)

Please note: The background song, Closer contains lyrics depicting the very adult condition of sexual desperation. There’s a brief flash of nudity in the video, and whoever edited the video has done an excellent job of recontextualizing tame-enough-for-TV scenes into something racy enough for “Skinemax”.

So. Very. Wrong.

Yeah, the video’s been up for a while. I have no idea how I missed this one.

Bonus Stuff!

Oh, yeah…the “fight music” from the original Star Trek [1.8MB MP3]. I wanted this played at our wedding, but the Ginger Ninja said no.

The U.S. Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing were originally based in Roswell, New Mexico, a fact that they use to great graphic effect in this unofficial patch that one of them had made:

Miss Fipi Lele sent me an alternate version, which throws in another reference to aliens by way of a science fiction short story that became one of the better Twilight Zone episodes:

Click to see the image at full size.

Wondering about the latin at the bottom of the patch, Gustatus similis pullus? It’s “dog latin” for “tastes like chicken”.

For reference, here’s the intro to the original Spider-Man, complete with one of the finest themes to any television show:

Here’s a bonus: the intro to an ill-conceived Japanese live-action Spider-Man TV show. Marvel licensed the character to a Japanese TV production company who then took great liberties with the character, such as giving Spidey a giant robot with which to defeat enemies (a trick that would be copied later by the Power Rangers) and changing his origin story so that he gets his powers from a magic bracelet rather than a mutation caused by a bite from a radioactive spider. But oh, how I love the theme music, done in classic Japanese adventure TV show style! As the lyrics to the theme say, “Yeah yeah yeahhhhhh…WOW!”

If you’re looking for a dessert recipe for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, here’s one that I found while Googling for recipes that make use of one of my favourite beers, Guinness.

Developed by Shane Philip Coffey, chef at Alias in New York’s Lower East Side, it got its start when he asked himself “What if you combined a dark chocolate pudding and Guinness, topped it with whipped cream lightly flavored with Guinness, and then put it in a glass to make it look just like a pint of the black?”

The end result: Chocolate Guinness Goodness. You can read the recipe at Epicurious or below.

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Ingredients

Required:

• 8 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• One 14.9-ounce can Guinness Draught (or, if there’s an Irish pub handy, a pint of Guinness from the tap)
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 7 ounces high-quality bittersweet (70 to 72% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped (Chef Coffey says “Make the effort to find a good dark chocolate…the better the chocolate, the creamier the dessert.”)

Recommended

• 6 8-ounce “old-fashioned” glasses

Instructions

In large nonreactive mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.

Open can of Guinness and slowly pour into 4-cup measuring cup, pouring down side of cup to reduce foaming. Pour half of Guinness (about 7/8 cup) into heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Add 2 1/4 cups cream and whisk to combine. Set over medium heat and heat, whisking occasionally, until bubbles just begin to form at edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate, and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Return mixture to saucepan and set over moderately low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon, about 15 minutes. (Pudding will look separated.) Pour into blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Divide pudding among glasses, leaving at least 1 inch of space at top of each. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set.

Meanwhile, pour remaining Guinness into small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 20 minutes. Pour syrup into small bowl and let cool.

Beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add Guinness syrup and beat until combined. Divide cream among 6 glasses of pudding and serve.

Makes 6 servings.

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I’m going to have to try making this recipe!

If you’re on any one of these social network web-thingies…

…and you’re looking to fatten up your “friends” list, I’d be happy to bump up its count by one. Just send me a “friend” request!