Indiana has a penis. Hehe.

I must say, it’s not very often that you can walk outside in the beginning of February without seeing snow everywhere.

Raging thunderstorms on February 5. Who would’ve thought?

From 47 degrees and sunny just before noon…

To wind, hail, thunder and lightning at 7:00am. Ending with 19 degrees and flurries just before 11:00pm.

Let’s hope when I walk out to my car it doesn’t look like it did in April of 2006.

What did I do? Well, I almost burned down the station.

Maybe I’m embellishing slightly. It wouldn’t have been my fault if it had happened, though.

It’s always a little disturbing when you pick up the aroma of burning plastic. It only took 5 minutes of scurrying around the edit bay to find out one of my monitors was literally smoking. Third monitor I’ve blown out in 6 months. Whoops.

I did make it home from Nashville, by the way. But when I saw this sign at Nasvhille International Airport, I thought that might not happen.

I’m not sure if I want to travel on any plane leaving from an airport that trusts Windows 98 for anything. Especially when it’s in the process of shutting down. If you’re not careful, all of the instruments on the plane and on the ground show a blue screen of death. Luckily you don’t crash. You just get stuck, forever.

Ahh. It’s a whole new design for a whole new year.

Doesn’t that feel better? So nice and clean.

That’s what you can get done in airports if you put your mind, and battery-life, to it.

Anyways, I’m on the road again. Seems like that’s happening a lot as of late. I just worked an ESPNU game in Tennessee (the state where Tennessee-in’ is Tennebelievin’ and where edukashun pays). Tennessee State at Tennessee Tech. Confusing.

For being the Ohio Valley Conference, it was a pretty good game. But damn, those women’s teams play fast. Someone needs to teach these small schools about face time. A girl would go to the line, the referee would toss her the ball, she would bounce it once and take her free throw. Compare that to those guys in the NBA. They get the ball, dribble 4-5 times, stare at the bucket (while their face is perfectly framed on television), then take their shot. Talk about a complex.

Anyways, back to the actual game. You can’t complain about a game where only 3 things are screwed up by the graphics guys (@ of those were my fault). The confusion between Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech got the best of me on a results graphics. Whoops. Didn’t mean to give the wrong school credit. Oh, and Stat Track. Stat Track how I loathe thee. The biggest, most obtrusive graphic ever. Does it really help tell the story of the game? Well, if I’m sitting in a bar watching Wisconsin at Purdue and Southeast Missouri St. at Murray St. (which I am) I don’t really care about those 3 stat categories. I want to see occasional field goals, rebounds and maybe another telling stat.

The constant saying about the Stat Trak is that the game gets in the way of using it, just like the game gets in the way of every Fox show. Have you ever seen how many sponsored elements there are in a Fox show? It’s a wonder you even see the game.

Anywho. After a 4:00 am wake-up call, 5:00 am crew call, 11:00 am broadcast and hour drive to the airport, I’m tired. And not just a little tired, like falling asleep in my airport O’Charley’s beer.

So now, I wait. 2 more hours. BNA to ORD to IND. Home by 11:00. Or so the paperwork says.

Here’s some photos from the trip down. Maybe I’ll get the photos from today off my phone. First I have to find a power outlet. Damn airports.

How I hope to be dressing when I’m 26.

Get your mind out of the gutter!

So yesterday, I broke out one of my Christmas presents. Possibly the most important Christmas present. Ever.

A Homemade Sushi Kit.

Complete with my own Kikkoman bottle.

I know what you’re thinking. “Seth, making sushi? With raw fish? And knives?” I was worried at first, too. Since I’m still alive, I’d say I did a pretty damn good job.

Sushi is not nearly as hard to make as I thought. Creating the sushi roll is fairly easy, the time consuming part is preparing your ingredients. I made a total of 3 rolls (2 California [one with wasabi paste, one without], 1 salmon and asparagus).

The first step was to cook the rice and cut all of the ingredients. For the salmon roll I used:

• Fresh New Zealand Salmon (I used maybe an ounce of meat)
• Cucumber
• Asparagus
• Wasabi Mayonnaise
• Sushi Rice (with seasoning)
• Nori (one sheet)

Be sure you know where to buy good fish. I found a great market in Carmel, Joe’s Butcher Shop and Fish Market. Don’t make fun of me, but I found it on The A-List from TheIndyChannel.com. The fresh salmon was really fresh, and really tasty.

I started by cooking the rice in the electric rice cooker. You’re supposed to rinse the rice two or three times before cooking, but I forgot. Luckily that didn’t seem to matter much. I made enough for 4 rolls (1 ¼ cups of rice, 1 ½ cups of water), but only ended up making 3 (hence the extra rice in the pan).

I prefer to cut my vegetables while the rice is cooking. First steam one asparagus stalk. You can do this in a skillet with some water and a lid. Leave it on medium heat until the tip of a knife pieces the stalk. Take the stalk and slice it in down the middle so you have two long pieces. Take the cucumber and chop off a 2-inch portion to use. I would not use an end, as it makes it very difficult to slice up the pieces. Cut the skin from the cucumber, and slice the vegetable into tiny strips. For one roll I used 9-12 skinny strips.

As soon as the rice is done cooking, dump it into a big shallow pan (like the Pyrex dish I used). Pour 2 tablespoons of the seasoning on the rice as evenly as possible. Then take one of those wooden rice spoons and make quick cutting motions through the rice to mix the seasoning without breaking the grains. As you mix spread the rice out to cool it as quickly as possible.

The rice should now be shiny and sticky.

This is when I like to cut the meat. I took my salmon fillets and filleted them down even more. I cut the fish into thin strips to lay across the roll. If you’re not going to cook the fish, make sure to keep it cold as long as possible. If you’re going to cook the fish, pick the way you like best. If I used cooked salmon, I preferred smoked.

A rolling mat is especially handy. It’s made from a bunch of skinny bamboo pieces that are tied together. I like to put a piece of Saran wrap around the mat to keep the nori from sticking (this also helps with cutting). Take a sheet of nori (the seaweed wrap) and place it “shiny side down” on the rolling mat. I don’t know what in the world “shiny side down” means. Both sides of my nori were shiny. One side was rough, the other side smooth. I went for smooth side down. You put it on the mat with the long side facing you. When you roll, you roll away from your body.

Wet your hands (it keeps the rice from sticking) and start spreading rice on the nori. Start at the side closest to you, leaving one-inch uncovered on the opposite side. As soon as the rice touches the nori it sticks. Be sure to spread it out as evenly as you can, but not too thick. You should still be able to see the nori through the rice.

At the side closest to your body spread a little wasabi mayonnaise across the rice. Careful, it’s spicier than you think. Then lay a piece of asparagus on top of the wasabi (so it’s parallel to the edge of your counter/table/sushi-making-stand). Next up, lay the meat next to the asparagus, then the cucumber next to the meat.

Now roll the roll. Tucking the side closest to you into the roll as you go. Make sure it turns into a roll and not a squished pillow. I find slightly wetting the last few centimeters of nori makes the roll stick together better. Now remove the roll from the mat, with the Saran wrap still wrapped. This allows you to perform some final retouches on the roll to ensure it’s circular and not bumpy anywhere.

Take a long, sharp knife (a long fillet knife works perfectly). Use long, swift cuts to slice the sushi into pieces. Pick the size that works best for your mouth, I went with 8 slices and 2 ends.

Present on a platter (with an extra California roll if you forget about it, like I did). Serve. Enjoy.

We all had a fantastic New Year downtown. Not only was a beer and trophy involved, but lots of stupid ideas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s nice that there aren’t any banners obstructing the view.

Those gas guys are getting pretty clever. They almost got me.

We usually flip on our brain’s auto-pilot when doing mundane or routine activities. Things like driving, riding a horse, buying gas, buying hookers.

The newer pumps at gas stations offer all three fuels (regular, plus, premium) from the same nozzle. 99% of the time you can count on the button for Unleaded Regular to be either the one next to the pump or the one on the opposite side. But I found the 1% chance of it being the one in the middle.

When I pulled up I looked quickly at the choices and knew the one in red was not for me, so I automatically went to the far side and selected Plus. Plus was not what I wanted. Not because I’m too cheap to pay an extra $0.80 for a tank of gas. I didn’t want Plus because my owner’s manual says, “Don’t use 89 octane gasoline.”

I guess the lesson is, learn to read. Or maybe it’s don’t buy hookers under 93 octane. I’ll let you decide.

A fridge full of beer for a twenty-fifth birthday always sounds like a good idea.

That is, until your roommate and the intern sleeping on your couch are each bet $20 they won’t jump into the pond behind your apartment.

Image all the goose poop. But, hey. $20.

I have found the secret to surviving life happy. And it’s all in my fridge, at this very moment.

1 gallon of milk.
24 New Castle beers.

Allow me to explain why I have all this beer in my fridge.

Mike’s (my roommate) birthday is coming up rather quickly. In fact, it’s basically here. So how would a bunch of Ball State graduates celebrate his birth. Responsibly, of course. By partaking of adult beverages throughout the afternoon while attempting to not burn the building down while making burgers.

Busy strip mall?

OR

Strip club VIP room?

Do you really want to hire someone who needs a step-by-step guide to washing their hands?

I’m not sure I should trust those kids making my coffee-type beverage at Starbucks, since that’s where I saw this.

Mike and I passed this kid on the way to Live Free or Die Hard.

Look closely, you’ll see he’s wearing a white Karate belt around his head. A T-shirt. Driving his mom’s Subaru. With his mom in the car.

He’s cool!