December 24, 11pm - Gyor, Hungary.

December 25, 6am - Vienna, Austria.

December 25, 10am - Frankfurt, Germany.

December 25, 12:30pm - Boston, USA.

The end of December is such a strange time of year.  When else does the confluence of consumer frenzy, end-of-year rush, religious tension, family tension, happiness, sadness and the facing of another murky year reach it’s peak?  Bogged down as we are with the pressures of home and an emotional peak to the change of the season, it’s a wonder we feel that Christmas is a time of happiness and merriment.  Let’s take a moment to consider the angles.

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As I finally put to rest my long overdue fifth Flash project and some other things that had been hanging over my head, I made E a quiche I had promised since our trip to Paris a month ago.  It came out pretty well, but the crust was a little over done and I think I’d change the seasoning next time.  Recipe is as follows:

2 cups brown rice (cooked)
1 cup bread crumbs
4-5 tablespoons oil
herbs (basil, parsley)
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained (duh)
1 packet smoked salmon
2/3 of an onion, chopped
3 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
a bunch of grated cheese
Mix cooked rice, breadcrumbs, 1 egg and 1-2 tbsp oil in a bowl.  Spread mixture onto the bottom and sides of a greased baking plate.  Put in a medium oven for about 10 minutes.

Sautee the onions and garlic in a little oil until lightly brown.  Lightly mix the 5 eggs and milk and then add the onions, spinach, cheese (save a little for the top) and salmon until well mixed.  Add the mixture to the cooking plate and cook about 20 minutes or until firm.  Turn off heat, sprinkle leftover cheese on top and leave in oven to kick it while you set the table.  Serve immediately.

Despite being a week overdue on my latest Flash project, I spent the weekend partying like it’s 1999.  Friday we saw an incredible show by Brit dance troupe DV8, then went with (new characters) Akos and Weird Jo for drinks at a smoky bar in the 8th district.  Lessons learned:  Contemporary dance doesn’t have to be totally incomprehensible and Finlandia is my new vodka of choice.

Saturday we met at long last with Csaba the Hungarian, unseen since graduation parties like, a million years ago, at the comic book bar.  After two courso beers we trammed it to a going away party for some monkey moving to San Francisco (the lucky bastid).  All I can remember is that Csaba was surrounded by women and was constantly opening a bottle of wine, and I woke up with a huge bruise on my hip.  Lessons learned:  The first expat I met in Budapest works in plastics and his whole life ended when he graduated from Penn four years ago, Hungarian guys wearing green du-rags have a paltry selection of music (even for Def Selecta) and bad skin, and DON’T, whatever you do, eat really spicy pasta and then drink too much.  Ouch.

One of the oldest myths surrounding the Christmas season is that of an old man from the 4th century named St. Nicholas who was famous for his secret gift-giving.  This eventually became the model for who we now know as Santa Claus.  While the huff about who’s been naughty or nice is retained from the original, the similarities end there.  Nick would usually show his mug on the 5th or 6th of December, and would deposit gifts in the shoes of those boys and girls who hadn’t teased others, cheated on tests, gone to war for no reason and so on.  In Hungary, the tradition of cleaning one’s shoes on the eve of St. Nick’s possible appearance in a last minute appeal for mercy is still practiced.  This year however, before we even had the chance to retie the laces, poof! we found a bag of treats waiting for us in our footwear, the modern red-nosed-white-bearded signature emblem blazoned across the front.  I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was five and stayed up all night hiding and waiting for his arrival, confirming my suspicions when my mom unloaded the goods, but now I know that St. Nick brings the loot early and she just works for him.

Oy, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test is finally over and done with.  It (among others) has been the main reason for the lack of recent updates or interesting commentary on things such as this.  I won’t know the results until March and to tell the truth I really won’t know if I passed until then.  Thankfully, the kanji and listening sections went better than I thought they would, but the grammar could have gone either way and the reading comprehension went terrible.  I didn’t even have enough time to finish, and had to fill in the last four bubbles at random.  I really hope I pass, but to tell the truth the test isn’t an even remotely accurate depiction of what I know.  After all, there’s no speaking section and certainly not a Kansai slang one either!

Check out a couple new galleries and additions to old ones here.  The links area has also been updated with lots of time wasting web content!  Enjoy.

Finally got my groove on this last Friday to the old-school breaks of none other than the founder of the Zulu Nation and hip-hop as we know it, Afrika Bambaataa.  For a guy pushing 50, he can still pack a club with the best of ‘em.

Please click here to see pics from the show.