Television...and other things..

1. A Major Crane Collapsed in Lower Manhattan -- it took out half a city block.

Here, you can watch it from the point of the view of the people watching in a near-by building:

Watch on YouTube

It was a huge deal, as you can well imagine. Killed one poor woman, who was sitting in her car on the street minding her own business.

2. Attempted to watch The People vs. OJ Simpson -- didn't make it very far. In part because I can still vividly remember watching the whole thing live in 1991, while in law school. Our law professors would tell us - did you watch the OJ Simpson Trial last night? Well, don't do that. That's how you don't do litigation. And when I interned with the public defender's office? See those cops? Cops are untrustworthy, just like Mark Furhman. We used to debate whether OJ did it, and whether he'd be found guilty. (I knew he wouldn't -- the evidence was circumstantial, the prosecution and cops screwed up, and Johnny Cochran knew how to work the jury. 98% of litigation is performance -- it's pretty much who can put on the best show, present the facts the best and charm the jury. ie. Dictated by emotion not plot. Lawyers know this, you find out the hard way in law school. The public still believes what they see on television and in legal thrillers, which with the possible exception of The Good Wife, lies. To this day, I don't know if he was actually guilty or not, I suspect that he was -- but it remains unclear based on what I saw. The Civil Case was never televised, and he was found guilty in the civil case - which wasn't surprising, not as high a burden of proof. Also there were things they could include in a civil case that are excluded under criminal law. I prefer Civil to Criminal, it's easier, and less emotionally painful.)

However, it is proof that in real life there is not such thing as a tight plot, justice, or clear resolution. It's all driven by emotion and ego.

Well that, and it gave us all the Kardishians and Reality Television...the gift that keeps on giving.

It did, however, put an end to televised court cases. So there's that.

3. So I watched Mercy Street instead. Which is not quite the same level of quality that
Downton Abbey is. A bit on the preachy side, and at times feels a tad cliche and sanctimonious. I like several of the characters though, the acting is good, and there's no commercials. Plus, it focuses on the inner-workings of a union hospital in Virgina at the height of the Civil War, which I find fascinating.

One thing it does that is interesting -- is shine a light on how neither side was necessarily good or just. And how complicated the abolition of slavery actually was --- it didn't just go away over night.

Too late to continue. Going to bed now.

(no subject)

Relaxing day, generally speaking. Not sure I'll make it to church tomorrow, we have a guest speaker, who is doing a sermon on "The Structural Evil of Prison" sharing stories from his time in prison and reflections on the nature of evil. ...and I just don't know if I want to listen to it at the moment. I know a lot about prison, the structural evil of prison, etc...already. Also, I've spent quality time with various hardened criminals and prisoners in my lifetime..so it's not like it's a new topic or anything. I find the whole topic insanely depressing and frustrating.

My motto right now is if I can't do anything about it, I'm ignoring it.

So may skip and swing by the farmer's market to go shopping instead.

I'm struggling with my diet at the moment. I caved this week and bought gluten-free bread. Which technically should not be an issue -- but my stomach hates it. The tummy knows...I suppose. But damn, that grilled cheese sandwich was good, and not that big. Worked very well with a cup of root vegetable soup. Just had massive heartburn afterwards.

So what to do with the bread and cheese? Throw it out? Freeze it? Try to donate, partially eaten bread and cheese? Take it to the farmer's market and dispose of it in the compost?

Caved again today, and made...Avocado Chocolate Chocolat Chip Cookies...basically you substitute Avocado for butter. They are rather tasty. Found the recipe on the Facebook and tweaked it slightly.

Here's the recipe, outside of the eggs, it's quite vegan. Although you can do eggs on a vegan diet, depending on how you feel about poultry. Not that I'm vegan -- much to the confusion of people around me. I'm modified paeolo, which is basically veggies, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, fruit, and that's more or less it. They call it the caveman diet - mainly because there's no processed foods or grains to speak of in it. But I've been cheating here and there, and having things like cheese, butter,
and rice.

Anywho...here's the recipe for the Cookies, which came out better than expected. Light and chocolatey.
Dangerous in a way, you can easily gobble up five and not notice.

Ingredients

2 ounces raw organic unsweetened chocolate melted in 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil
1/2 organic avocado
2 tablespoons of unsalted organic almond butter
1/4 cup honey
1 organic egg and one organic egg white
2 tablespoons organic cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons organic almond flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Puree avocado in a food processor or high-speed blender until very smooth

3. Add other ingredients, one at a time and pulse until the batter is smooth

4. Chill the batter in the fridge for one hour.

5. Fill a pastry bag and pipe batter onto cookie sheet, or drop the batter by heaping tablespoons.

6. Bake for 15-17 minutes.

7. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Line "5" made me laugh. Pipe batter onto a cookie sheet with a pastry bag...yeah right. Like I own one, and even if I did, I don't pipe. No patience. It's heaping tablespoons. See this is why I don't do bake sales well, I'm a messy baker.

Also, the cookies stick to the baking sheet. I used aluminium foil...I may try something different next round. Because they really do stick, as in half the bottom comes off.

I did fiddle with the recipe slightly, because I'm me, and that's what I do. I never follow recipes to the letter. I added vanilla, used coco powder instead of unsweetened bakers chocolate, and added cinnamon, nutmeg, and curry powder.

Discovered something when I was making it -- you can make a yummy chocolate mousse with avocados and cocoa powder...also egg white. Just saying.