Blizzard Baked Chicken

A few weeks ago my room mate made up a really good chicken recipe. I gave the recipe this silly name because she came up with this as we staying inside to avoiding a blizzard. I was very suspecious of her when she explained what she was going to do. I even told her I was sure it wouldn't work. I ended up eating most of it myself, and being amazed the whole time.

Breaker's Blizzard Baked Chicken:

You will need:

6 chicken pieces.
2 apples, quartered then thinly sliced.
1/4 cup maple syrup.
2 onions, chopped.
1 tsp salt.
1/2 tsp pepper.

Instructions:

Put all the ingredients in a small casserole dish with a lid. Bake at 350 for 45m - 1h or until chicken is cooked.

Amazing stuff.

Out of Province

I can't be a resident of Quebec until I've not been a student here for 1 full year. This means I don't get a Quebec health card. Manitoba is happy to provide me with an out of province health coverage but Quebec is the only province in Canada who doesn't accept health plans from out of province. So, this means I get treated like a second class citizen and I have to pay exorbitant prices in cash for every medical service I require.

This wouldn't be so bad if doctors charged me the same amount that they bill the Quebec government for local residents... They can charge me whatever they want, because I'm treated as an international. For example, a doctor charges 35$ to the province for every patient they see, but the minute they realize I'm "out of province" I have to pay 90$ cash. When I send the bill to Manitoba health, they say "sorry we can only pay the standard fee of 35$", so I'm out 45$ per visit.

Blood tests, scans, medication, anything like this I have to pay cash. The amounts charged by each clinic is random. Some charge 50, others 80... Doctors make up prices for things on the spot!. Also, sometimes MB health won't cover something... For example, I had to get a fancy antibiotic last year because I had a reaction to the normal one. It was synthetic so it cost more. MB health said "we don't cover that antibiotic when prescribed out of province"... So guess who was stuck with the bill...

This whole situation would be fixed if doctors did the following things.

1. Charged Canadians the same prices as they charge their Quebec patients.
2. Tell patients which medications won't be covered by their provincial health plan. In soon to be the year 2008, having access to information shouldn't be an issue.

Countdown to Codecs

Left foot, right foot, keep running, don't give up.

I have had a very difficult few weeks. First off, this session of exams was pretty difficult. It felt like my life was tearing apart. I had family there to support me which was an amazing luxury.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Now that the exams/paper/finals domino has toppled, I'm onto my next Piece. Codecs.

Codecs builds on the techniques in Evolution 5x8 and adds a live electronic component. Evoluition 5x8 used a very rigid system that created very interesting results. It reminded a lot of people of Steve Reich, but more dissonant and less repetitive. Now I'm trying to loosen the system and make things more intricate and expressive. Instead I feel like I'm driving myself crazy. I know what I'm trying to do, I can hear it and see it... but it's time consuming and difficult to do. Sometimes I do it and don't like the desired result so I have to start over.

I need to get this piece done to the best of my ability. Just keep those notes coming...

I'll keep a project log in here just as I did with Scars. Even though I have more time, I'm having a harder time than I did back then. I didn't have to out do myself.

Saved the world again...

This game was a lot of fun. Quite an adventure, and the perfect distraction when your brain isn't capable of any more school work. Even though this game is quite old and lame by todays standards, it was pretty intense for me. A typical testosterone flooded space opera. No apologies from me for anything quake related. I wouldn't have been accepted to McGill if it weren't for Quake. And I'm sure I'll never get tired of fantasizing about being a space marine.

Epic story, epic monsters, epic weapons, epic sounds, epic epic epic. There were moments where my jaw dropped at imagination required to put some of the scenes together. Other times I was kicking myself in frustration for having decided to play the game on hard mode. There were times where I had to memorize whole sequences of actions to clear a room without being killed. This one was fun because they surprised you right until the end. Oh... and you get to drive a tank.

20$ well spent. You can't beat video games when it comes down to bang for the buck entertainment.