Author: King Tom

Indoors Inspiration

Over the past few days, I’ve had conversations with friends about blogging.

One friend is considering starting a blog. The other used to blog prolifically, but hasn’t updated his blog in a while.

Both conversations left me feeling like I should blog more. I had a streak of a few days last month where I was updating regularly, but since then I’ve had a hard time coming up with ideas. My veteran blogger friend suggested going outside. But today it’s nasty outside, so that method of inducing inspiration will have to wait.

At least we’re entering the time of year where the weather is more conducive to outside activities (unless you get hit by a solar flare). So maybe I’ll have more to write about. Or I could just write about being indoors and having nothing to write about.

King Tom2 Comments

Cooking Like the Master

My favorite restaurant of all time may not be around anymore, but I do have one of the chef’s recipes.

The second incarnation of Tomo’s Cuisine closed a few years ago and Chef Tomo Tanaka has disappeared. A few months ago, while reading reviews of his restaurant, I found Tomo’s recipe for Tuna in Daikon Sauce. Since October, tuna has been off-limits for The Civee, so I bookmarked the page with the thought I could return to it later this summer.

We had planned to have salmon for dinner tonight. We’ve had a lot of salmon recently and I was looking for something different to do. I was pondering the preparation when it hit me- what if I modified Tomo’s recipe to use salmon, rather than tuna? It would still be a gamble, because I’ve never cooked with daikon before and could see that getting out of hand.

I went to an Asian supermarket and picked up a daikon for 65 cents. It was a lot like a radish, but the bite wasn’t as strong. The key to the recipe, though, was (as the article mentions) the combination of soy sauce and butter. Surprisingly, the results were good. The Civee and Hope seemed to enjoy the salmon. The fish came apart more than I think it was supposed to, but the flavor made up for it. I’ll try this again, both with salmon, and with tuna later in the summer.

It wasn’t quite Tomo’s, but it was a nice reminder of how good his restaurant was. I may have one of his recipes. but I still have a long way to go before I can do wonderful things with food like he did.

(The original end to that last sentence read “before I can cook like him,” but The Civee nicely raised the point: “do sushi chefs cook?” To which I replied a) if all they do is make sushi, no and b) Tomo cooked a lot. But either way, to call what Tomo did as simply “cooking” would be a disservice)

King Tom

Good News for the Greendale Human Beings

I’m not going to pretend my post from this weekend had anything to do with it, but Community will be back on the air next month.

Unfortunately, Community’s return to the schedule means Parks and Recreation will be off the air for a few weeks, but I think I can handle that. Also, I received this in the mail today:

Part of me is tempted to wait until this weekend. I could watch the Foosball clip another 100 times to hold me over until then.

 

King Tom

My Test of Wills With a 22-Month-Old

Tonight, I was tested as a parent like never before.

Recently, during dinnertime, Hope has finished eating much quicker than The Civee or I. And she repeatedly lets us know she’s finished. Sometimes she will sit with us as we eat, but many nights, she wants to get out of her chair and play, often asking for us to leave the table and play with her.

The Civee and I usually don’t give in. We’re fine letting her down early, but it’s our goal to finish our meal, hopefully impressing upon her the idea that as a family, we sit together until everyone is done eating. I should probably also mention that one of her favorite commands is “come,” and she will say this as she reaches for our hands to take us somewhere to show us something or to play with us.

Well, tonight, she finished early. And The Civee and I were enjoying our pork chops and conversation, so we let her down. She stood by my chair and looked up at me, grabbing my hand. “Come,” she said. To which I replied, “Hope, I am not done. We will play when mama and dada are done eating.”

She went away and came back after a few moments. Still with a big smile on her face, she looked up at me; “Daddy…come.” This started to weaken my resolve. The Civee and I had always taught her to refer to us as Mama and Dada. I don’t know where she got it from, but within the last week, she’s started calling me Daddy instead of Dada, and it just sounds so cute. But still, I stayed seated and continued my meal.

She pouted a little, went into the living room and came back a minute later. She grabbed at my hand, pointed to the couch with her other hand and said as she smiled and looked into my eyes; “Daddy….come. Watch…..Weezer.”

And there it was. This little girl knows my weak spot. We don’t watch a lot of television with her (and I’m pretty sure that Weezer videos are the only thing she and I watch together), but we do enjoy the many kid-friendly videos Weezer has. The Civee was looking at me too and I knew I had to stay put. I could not give in at this point. I simply said, “Hope, no.”

She started to cry. Which made me want to cry. All because I’m trying to teach her a lesson. We’ve had a great weekend so far, spending a lot of time playing and even taking a trip to COSI while The Civee studied. There will most likely be a time in the future when she won’t want to hang out or want my attention as much as she does now. And as tough as it may be to believe, she may not always want to watch Weezer videos with me.

Still, she does have to learn about mealtime. And I can’t give her the idea that I’m putty in her hands. It’s tough, but I’d like to think that what I did tonight was good for both of us.

King Tom6 Comments

Netflix the Newest Part of Anti-Community Conspiracy

This morning, I got an e-mail from Netflix saying they received back from me a copy of Community Season One, disc one.

Normally (even with the lack of things to blog about), I wouldn’t write about this. But there’s a catch- Netflix shipped the DVD to me Thursday and I never received it.

I called Netflix and explained the problem. They said they would send me another copy, which I should expect Tuesday. That’s all well and good but, I was hoping to watch Community this weekend.

I don’t watch much current TV. Since Lost and 24 ended, the only shows I watch the night they air are Parks and Recreation and The Office (more out of commitment to what the show used to be than to what it is today).

I would include Community on that list, but because NBC prefers bland, middle of the road cliche sitcoms to groundbreaking comedies, Community is on hiatus. This is not the first time NBC has chosen to stupidly go this route (in essence, NBC is Britta-ing itself).

Community is a different show, with perhaps a more narrow appeal, yet I haven’t heard one person say they find the Whitney show funny. Nor have I seen any fan movement to keep the horrible Are You There Chelsea on the air.

So while these two shows waste timeslots and plunge NBC deeper in the ratings hole, new episodes of Community sit on the shelf (or are locked up in the secret government warehouse). And my plans to start watching the show from the very beginning are on hold until next week.

So while I wait, I’ll just keep watching this clip, which woke me up laughing a few nights after I saw it:

King Tom1 Comment

Happy 20th, Weezer!

Around these parts, February 14 is known as International Weezer Day. On this date, twenty years ago, Weezer practiced together for the first time.

According to band assistant, historian and all around great guy Karl Koch:

On 2/14/92 Rivers, Pat, Jason (on acoustic guitar, which he would retain untill late fall 1992), and Matt (newly arrived from Berkeley, CA), got together at T.K. rehearsal studios, in West LA, and rehearsed for either 3 or 4 days straight. On the 3rd day, somebody rolled tape for a while…

Note that weezer wasnt actually named yet. On the original tape the following band names were all crammed on the label, a joke on how no one could decide on the name for the band yet. Some were old names, such as “Fuzz”, but there was also such notables as “Meathead”, “Outhouse”, and “Hummingbird”, and I know some other names being kicked around were “the Big Jones” and “This Niblet”.

Unlike a lot of other bands, Weezer didn’t toil in obscurity for a long time before making it big. They signed their first record contract 15 months after their first practice. The band’s lineup changed (for the first time) during the recording of the Blue Album in 1994, when guitarist Jason Cropper left and was replaced by Brian Bell. Original bassist Matt Sharp left in 1998 and was replaced by Mikey Welsh and later Scott Shriner.

I first heard Weezer a few days after my 17th birthday in 1994 and got the Blue Album for Christmas that year. And I’ve been listening to them ever since. Last week, a poster on the All Things Weezer message board asked why us fans listened to Weezer. I left a long and rambling, but inconclusive response.

Even though their first album came out 17 years ago, it still sounds fresh and new to me. I’ve always liked the way they’ve sounded as a band. Also, their music meant something to me. Nine (or eight, depending on who you talk to) albums later, I can still say the same thing. They’ve experimented with song styles and structure, but their stuff still sounds like Weezer.

I’ve been to 11 Weezer shows (even meeting the band after one of them). I’ve been a part of many online fan communities. I’ve kept up with the band during hiatuses that seemed like they would last forever. It’s been a fun 17 years for me, and I hope 20 years for the guys in the band.

It seems cliche to with them another great 20 (or more) years. But I would like to see them rocking for as long as it keeps them happy.

Happy 20th birthday, Weezer.

And happy International Weezer Day to all of you out there.

King Tom3 Comments

The Fanboy Menace

Way back during my first month of blogging, I wrote about my the last time I saw a Star Wars movie in the theater. It was probably the sixth or seventh (or maybe eighth) time I saw Return of the Sith in the theaters. But my rationale for going was sound. As I wrote at the time, I figured there won’t be many more times that I can say a Star Wars movie is playing in the movie theaters.

Well tonight, the opportunity presented itself as Star Wars Episode I opened in 3-D in theaters. True, The Phantom Menace is the worst of the six Star Wars movies. But it’s an entertaining flick, and if I’m going to catch the other parts of the saga when their 3-D release hits the theaters in coming years, I might as well start with the first movie.

For a 12-year-old movie not originally shot in 3-D, the conversion wasn’t that bad. There were some scenes that didn’t feel like they had any 3-D elements at all. There were some (like the space scenes) that felt like there should have been more use of 3-D. And there were others where it felt well done.  Overall, I’ve seen the movie a lot and I was surprised at the number of things (mostly in the background) that I haven’t seen or noticed before.

There were a lot of kids in the theater, who seemed entertained, which was nice to see. There was a boy next to me who really enjoyed the movie. I’m glad for him that they just get better from here on out (and part of me couldn’t help but think that The Phantom Menace could have been so much better had George stuck to his original script).

So if things keep to their current schedule, we’ll get a Star Wars movie in 3-D each year over the next six years. Even though I’ve stopped counting the number of times I’ve gotten to see these movies (in the theater and at home), it will be nice to see them again. And by the time the Original Trilogy gets out, just maybe I’ll bring Hope along.

King Tom2 Comments

The Marketing Era Is Over

I’ve been writing the Kingdom for the last six and a half years. Traffic for the blog is what you would expect for a blog about someone’s personal life. My promotional efforts for the blog have consisted of cross-posting entries to my Facebook wall and Twitter feed and sponsoring a page on BaseballReference.com.

For the last three years (maybe longer), I sponsored the player page of Hideki Irabu. Cost me about $20 each year. According to my Google Analytics numbers, since early 2008, Baseball Reference has sent 271 visitors my way. I wasn’t sponsoring the page for the traffic, but rather to recognize a player that I had been a fan of. The message was simple, something that I had written on the blog about Irabu:

For two months in 1998, Irabu was the best starting pitcher on what would become the greatest team in baseball. King Tom still has two Hideki Irabu t-shirts.

Last week, I got an e-mail from Baseball Reference saying my sponsorship fee was going up to $80. I decided to pass. Today, I went to Irabu’s page and now they’re asking for $135 to sponsor the page for a year.  I can kind of understand the hike, Irabu’s name was unfortunately in the news last year.

I don’t begrudge Baseball Reference trying to make some money. Their site is great and I liked supporting them. But at the same time, it’s a lot of money to spend for less traffic than I got from Blogs.4Bauer.com over the past four years. I may sponsor a page in the future (there are plenty of players on the Yankees teams of the 90s that aren’t taken yet).

But for now, I’ll just rely on people Googling Hideki Irabu rather than getting here through his Baseball Reference page.

King Tom

Off to See the Groundhog?

With the weather we’ve been having lately, it seems like winter is over. Unfortunately, due to the laws of karma (or something like that), we’ll probably get below freezing temperatures and feet of snow in late March.

King Tom

The Naming Non-Game, Round II

With another child on the way, one of the things The Civee and I have been talking about a lot lately is names.

We’re not planning on finding out the baby’s sex, so we have to come up with two names. We’re pretty sure we have a girl’s name picked out (and no, I won’t share it). But just like last time, we can’t quite agree on a name for a boy. Unfortunately, most of the boys’ names I liked last time around are still on her “definitely not in a million years” list (I also have the same standards for choosing a boy’s name as I did back then).

Still, I’ve been trying to keep an open mind. I’ve been looking at some lists of names, and while nothing has jumped out to me as the perfect name, I’ve seen some possibilities. Many of the lists contain the rankings of the most popular names over the past few years. And while I may like some of the names, the fact that it’s one of the most popular names for boys makes me less likely to choose it.

One particular list, over at familyeducation.com, had some interesting rankings. Take a look at names 24 and 25:

I’m not a huge fan of either name, but it has to be more of a coincidence that those two names are ranked back-to-back. Maybe I should add Jules or Mace to my list of contenders.

King Tom1 Comment