Patrick Stedem

About a month ago, after some internal deliberation, I purchased...

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:41:03 -0400

About a month ago, after some internal deliberation, I purchased a ticket (for one) to see Fiona Apple in Boston on June 30th. The hesitation was over the appearance I suppose, but who am I worried about appearing how to? Now that I’ve delved deeper into her catalog, I think this may have been a transcendentally brilliant decision. I am totally “geeked” (in a way different from the normal).

Enjoy.

Consider the Rutabaga

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:19:01 -0400

On a whim, I purchased a rutabaga due to its rather unique appearance and comely price. It’s a vegetable I’d heard little about and tasted less. Now that I’ve cooked and devoured the root, I know why. Preparation is both dangerous and lengthy. It requires peeling, but a traditional peeler is of little use. Instead, the easiest method is to slice into halves or quarters and cut off the unseemly outer layer. The initial slicing is where the danger comes in, as it is akin to cutting into a squash or similar. The flavor of the end product is pleasing, and a change of pace from other roots. However, the annoyance of preparation removes it from consideration for routine appearance on my dinner plate.

In a final analysis, the hearty outer layer of the rutabaga is both its blessing and its curse, and that’s a lesson for us all.

Just finished my taxes. Looks like my effective tax rate for...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:47:01 -0500

Just finished my taxes. Looks like my effective tax rate for 2011, 14.38%, beats Romney’s 13.89% for 2010. However, his estimate for 2011 was 15.44%. So comparing “apples to apples” he’s got me beat. Now Warren Buffett, his rate was only 11.06% for 2010. OWNED!!

Though it was somewhat expected, the fact that I owe over $2,000 briefly raised my blood pressure for fear of an underpayment penalty for owing over $1,000.

"We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under..."

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:45:19 -0500

“We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of expertise. What we don’t have are leaders.”

- From Solitude and Leadership, a lecture given by William Deresiewicz to the plebe class at West Point in October 2009

After occupying my Instapaper for nearly two months, I finally read this (originally seen on Kottke). It is excellent, and definitely worth your time.

He talks about the inefficiency of multitasking, and I am attempting to regain an ability to focus and concentrate. I’ve seen this issue noted numerous times, but habits are difficult to break. When I take a class now, and even when I was in college, it doesn’t seem I am retaining information in the way I did when I was younger.

Otherwise, it’s a reminder of what leadership really is and that individuals in leadership positions don’t necessarily attain those for the right abilities.

Read it!

If she has sold out — if she represented anything in the first...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:41:04 -0500

If she has sold out — if she represented anything in the first place — then she’s shown us exactly what our dollar can buy: an absolutely stunning video starring some of the Middle East’s finest stunt drivers.
— Hua Hsu on Grantland

The awesome video/song and a link to an excellent article about M.I.A. too: what more can you ask for?

P.S. I love Grantland and M.I.A. (even if it’s all pomp and a lie she hits the right notes for me).

By 2606, the US Diet will be 100 Percent Sugar

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:58:56 -0500

By 2606, the US Diet will be 100 Percent Sugar:

I find this highly amusing.

Wrap your brain around this: in 1822, we ate the amount of added sugar in one 12 ounce can of soda every five days, while today we eat that much sugar every seven hours.

…and the coup de grâce!

And using math, I can peer into the future. If current trends continue, by 2606 the US diet will be 100 percent sugar!

I watched the 2012 Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts (via the...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:56:00 -0500

I watched the 2012 Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts (via the ShortsHD release to theaters that happened on Friday), and this (A Morning Stroll) was by far my favorite. I wish the full video was available online. None of the shorts were bad, but I found them largely forgettable. Some great animation though.

2011 New Year's Resolutions in Review

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:16:00 -0500

To begin my review of 2011, I’ll look at how I performed in regard to my resolutions. I had five resolutions for 2011: 1. run more 2. do more pushups, situps and squats 3. read one hour a day 4. floss and 5. cook at home more often.

1. Run More

While from a technical standpoint I ran more than last year, I in no way achieved the amount of running I desired. When I started working nine hour days and the weather cooled down and it was dark leaving work, it was too easy to just say “whatevs.” There’s no excuse though, because I have a free gym membership for indoor running. I am weak and pathetic.

Rating: FAIL

2. More Pushups, Situps and Squats

I did increase the number of pushups, situps and squats done in each workout and I kept up with doing them routinely. I, however, did not come close to reaching the promised land of the hundredpushups, twohundredsitups and twohundredsquats programs.

Rating: MARGINAL SUCCESS!!

3. Read One Hour a Day

Wow. This souffle never even rose enough to collapse. I forgot I’d even set this resolution. Maybe this year?

Rating: SPECTACULAR FAILURE

4. Floss

Easily the greatest success of my 2011 resolutions, and potentially the greatest success of my entire life. While I don’t necessarily floss every single night, I do the vast majority of the time. It’s become a habit, and it’s to the point that the dental hygienist complimented my dental hygiene. My success owes a debt of gratitude to this Pop Economics entry. My greatest failure was not applying the same “keep doing it, even if only in an insignificant amount” way of pushing towards forming a habit to reading and running.

Rating: ABSOLUTE SUCCESS

5. Cook at Home More

This is a win, but with further room for improvement. I’ve shifted from only cooking humongous, weeklong quantities once a month and eating out the rest of the time to making single dinner portions. I’ve developed a ravishing love affair with the baked sweet potato and experimented with different vegetables I’d never eaten before, let alone cooked. I’ve shed quite a bit of weight, though I think that had more to do with changing, and being more conscious of, what I eat.

This is not to say that there have not been trials and tribulations. There have been abject failures (e.g. pecan and cheddar cheese balls, cooking a piece of fish so improperly it resulted in a sort of boney fishmash), and I have growing trepidation I will injure myself through haphazard knife usage, salmonella (or salamander as my paternal grandfather once referred to it) poisoning or not cleaning my oven of, now charred, sweet potato drippings.

Rating: SUCCESS

In the end, I’d say I equaled roughly a C+ average. And I’ll take that.

Overall Rating: MARGINAL SUCCESS!!!

A lesson that should be well learned…

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:18:25 -0500

A lesson that should be well learned…

"Here’s what you need to know, about life in general: any place that refuses to sell you a..."

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:13:56 -0500

“Here’s what you need to know, about life in general: any place that refuses to sell you a burger under medium temperature, is basically on the side of the terrorists.”

- Anthony Bourdain in the New York, NY episode of The Layover

My first try at this whole green smoothie thing, even though the...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:52:00 -0500

This

Becomes This

My first try at this whole green smoothie thing, even though the resulting smoothie is far from green in color. It was a resounding success. My blender impressed me by ripping through the orange like a chestburster alien would through, well, a chest. I followed the recipe here, and I left out the optional flaxseeds (I had my doubts without their inclusion).

After more trips to grocery stores than I care to remember, I have all the required ingredients needed for my Thanksgiving cooking. I’m especially excited about the DIY Irish Cream.

Late-night Excitement

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:19:00 -0500

While in bed last night, the jingle of keys and repeated clacks of, what I thought, were doors closing stirred me. Initially my ears were perked in the direction of my bathroom wall and the neighbors concealed therein. As the racket proceeded, I vacated my bedroom in order to ascertain the cause and develop a new course of action, as wishful neglect was proving fruitless.

Shortly after exiting my bedroom, it became abundantly clear that the disturbance was instead coming from outside my very own front door! As I approached the peephole, my eyes rolled like a 16-pound bowling ball thrown by an overambitious eight-year-old; slowly and deliberately. The assumption being the similarly-aged male neighbor across the hall was returning from a rough night of boozing. He was so blasted he couldn't open his own front door, I thought.

As I lifted the peephole to peer out, the door pulsed towards me. And again.

Drunkard: Come on, nothings working tonight.

I hesitated. Would the drunkard stumble in as soon as I opened the door? Would they argue this was their apartment? I've seen several news stories over the years about drunks entering the wrong house or apartment and being found passed out in a bed or lounging on the couch the next morning. If I hadn't locked my door, it would have happened to me. After fetching a shirt, I took the plunge.

Me: I think you have the wrong apartment.
Drunkard: You're right. I'm sorry.
Me: It's no problem.
Drunkard: I'm really sorry about that.

And with that I closed the door. Should I have offered help in finding the proper apartment or maybe even building? After all, I'd never seen this individual in my building before. It was not my neighbor across the hall, but an older, black-haired, Caucasian, female stranger.

"Do not put unauthorized cinnamon on the goddamn meeting table! That’s all the fuck we need."

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:40:08 -0500

“Do not put unauthorized cinnamon on the goddamn meeting table! That’s all the fuck we need.”

- Dan Dority in the Deadwood episode Unauthorized Cinnamon

I finished Deadwood a couple weeks ago and I think that’ll be the end of gorging on past TV shows for the moment. Deadwood is an excellent show, but an ever so minor step below the following shows I truly love: The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Freaks and Geeks and Community. However, the show was hitting its stride for me and had the potential to ascend if it hadn’t been cancelled due to HBO office politics. It’s definitely worth watching even with the limp and impotent ending, but it could of, and should of, been so much more.

Seeing Deadwood after Justified is interesting, because of the similarity in Timothy Olyphant’s characters in each. I may actually enjoy Justified more at this point, but I have more admiration for Deadwood. As with Boardwalk Empire or Mad Men, the quality execution of an intriguing period and setting is enthralling on its own.

Rating: 4/5

Gwangju To Your Room: My Friend Pat

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:15:34 -0400

Gwangju To Your Room: My Friend Pat:

dimmyjenfield:

This post is solely dedicated to my friend Pat.

Pat is a child-hood friend. We first met in the trivia club back in middle school. Since then, we grew as closer friends in high school and ended up falling out of touch throughout college and the beginning of our adult lives.

I always took Pat…

It’s funny to think back to Trivia Club, and that really our relationship began more as (fr)enemies. We’ve had some great trips and some good times. I wish we’d stayed in better touch or that I’d visited you in Korea. When you come up we can definitely take a roadtrip to Maine and etc. I love you, I miss you and I’m sorry too.

13 Assassins, Breaking Bad and The Wire

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:28:00 -0400

I spend a great deal of my time consuming media. Considering the amount of time devoted to this pursuit, it seems only natural to record my thoughts here. Often I see something truly fantastic and then let it slip off into the ether. I’m going to change that now, starting with 13 Assassins, Breaking Bad and The Wire.

“If you value your life, you’ll die a dog’s death.”

13 Assassins

Before 13 Assassins, the Takashi Miike films I’d seen were Audition, Visitor Q and Three… Extremes (this is actually three shorts with only one his). These certainly aren’t for everyone, and I doubt I’ll ever watch any of them again. Audition is my favorite of the three by far, with Visitor Q being too bizarre and his short “Box” in Three… Extremes being so forgettable I can’t recall anything about it (siamese twins?).

I heard nothing but good things about 13 Assassins and its nearly hour-long final battle. It didn’t disappoint. The premise is that a group of 13 samurais are enlisted to kill a sadistic lord, who is the brother of the current Shogun and son to the former. You truly despise the villain and his continued arrogance fuels your desire for his downfall. The final battle is exceptionally well done. It doesn’t suffer from hyper-editing or too many close-ups that cause action scenes to become incoherent messes. So, see it! Also, TOTAL MASSACRE.

Rating: 4/5

“So no matter what I do, hooray for me because I’m a great guy? It’s all good? No matter how many dogs I kill, I just, what, do an inventory and accept?!”

Breaking Bad

Jesse Pinkman, you break my heart. This show has been, and continues to be, phenomenal. It’s beautifully shot; it constantly rends my heart; badassery abound. I love it and I’m overjoyed it now has a defined end point so it can be planned out thoroughly and avoid pulling a Lost (or a Weeds for that matter). Don’t let me down!

Rating: 5/5 for the first three seasons and all of season four so far (through nine episodes).

“How you expect to run with the wolves come night, when you spend all day sparring wit’ the puppies?”

The Wire

By my estimation The Wire is the most critically acclaimed television show… ever. I put off starting this show despite the critical acclaim, constant love and references to Stringer Bell I never understood because of the commitment. 60ish hours is a long time, and full-hour shows on HBO feel daunting (it is compared to that 42-47 minute stuff!).

Everyone was/is right. The show lives up to the hype and then some. Before starting The Wire, I’d watched the first season of Treme (and quit shortly into season two) and Generation Kill. Treme became not worth the effort, and Generation Kill was good but not great. These experiences with David Simon left me wondering if I’d feel lukewarm about The Wire too.

I started with The Corner, since I heard it was sort of the predecessor to The Wire. It was good, and seeing the real individuals it was based on at the end brought it all together. I’ve watched the first four seasons of The Wire, with discs one and two of season five coming on Monday. Omar Little is my favorite character because of quotes like the one above (he must be everyone’s favorite, right?). The show does an excellent job of feeling realistic, and showing the warts of every character. No one feels two-dimensional. The characters are actually too warty to be realistic in my view, but maybe people in the Baltimore area are just terrible.

Rating: 5/5 so far, but you’ve already seen it all anyway.

This post was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay late. I watched 13 Assassins as Hurricane Irene was passing over, and I wanted to make this post shortly after. Oh well, better late than never.

Earthquakes in Virginia!! Hurricanes in New England!!My guess is...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 11:33:37 -0400

Earthquakes in Virginia!! Hurricanes in New England!!

My guess is active volcanoes in the Midwest next.

So, I haven’t done the best job of keeping up with this...

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:45:09 -0400

So, I haven’t done the best job of keeping up with this whole “blogging more” thing. BUT! I have an excuse! (Well, don’t we all.) I was in Huntsville, AL for a few days and just today I returned from Los Angeles, CA.

What is with the above picture, you ask? That was one of the bbq places recommended for the trip to Huntsville. In our search for it we stopped to ask for directions (at this rundown building) and were surprised to find out that this was the place. Despite outward appearances, the food was ok, but the only reason to return is because of the massive portions and cheap prices.

Sometime soon something real.

In the beginning...

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:31:54 -0400

Where to begin, where to begin.

So I moved to New Hampshire right as winter was ending (thank god). It snowed twice after I moved, and once enough to even have work cancelled. The image to the left was the view outside on the morning work was cancelled. The snowfall was waaaaay less than forecasted, and, since this happened on April Fool’s day, I was left wondering if my boss was playing a cruel joke on me. The first time it snowed I was overcome with this incredible childlike wonderment. In the past I had a little experience with snow, but not much. This coming winter I’m sure I’ll get my taste. My dad doesn’t think I’ll be able to stick it out here after being a lifelong Floridian. He could be right. I’ve put myself in unknown territory, and now it’s time to see what I’m made of.

On my trip up and upon arrival, everyone thought I was crazy to make this move. My dad and I constantly wondered why people stay in places they think are horrible.

I had several motivations for moving:

1. With the Space Shuttle program ending, my job was likely to follow suit.

If I had stayed I probably would still be working at Kennedy right now, but the future looks no better. Probably worse. With congress’s inability to sign off on a budget for this year, and the whole debt crisis, absolutely no progress has been made in deciding what the future is beyond the shuttle. All indications are that we’ll be seeing another budget fight for FY2012 that starts in October, so who knows if they’ll finally stop with continuing resolutions and make a decision.

2. Having always lived in Florida, I wanted to switch it up.

Might as well see what somewhere else has to offer while I can. I still want to live in a real city, and the obvious choice is Boston at this point. It’s a little far and definitely more expensive (e.g., state income tax, longer drive to/from work, higher cost of living in general), maybe after a promotion or two.

3. Vaishali’s interest (and general distaste of Florida) and her family in the Boston area and my relatives in New Hampshire.

This was, of course, very key. The part about my family ended up being perfect timing, but not for a pleasant reason. Right around the time I moved up my grandma was diagnosed with Richter’s transformation (extremely rare) of the form of cancer she’d had for ~20 years (CLL). This mutation is incredibly aggressive and she passed away in late June. I was incredibly fortunate to see her quite often thanks to my move, and able to help where I could.

In regard to Vaishali, she hasn’t been able to move up so far, but I’m hopeful. Her sister living in the Boston area has aided me in seeing her several times already though.

See, that wasn’t so bad. Although it did take awhile.

4 Months... Wow

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:08:45 -0400

Recently, I have had such a desire to blog my thoughts and feelings, and yet I would always hesitate for one reason or another. I’ve decided to disable Facebook crossposting to eliminate one possible reason. I avoid writing a personal blog entry in the way I push laundry or dishwashing or taking out the recycling as long as possible. The task itself is simple and short (perhaps not short in the case of blogging for me), and maybe even ultimately satisfying, but there’s an incredible amount of activation energy required.

A lot of things have happened in the past 4 months. And even before that I never even really addressed moving to New Hampshire. I am going to REALLY try to post more. I want to remember how I felt and even grow a little. Tonight, it’s too late to delve in. Tomorrow… there’s always tomorrow to fail again.

mrhipp: OCKBLOCKED Yup, that’s awesome.

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:02:09 -0400

mrhipp:

OCKBLOCKED

Yup, that’s awesome.