Kamikaze chestnuts

There's something very comforting about roasted chestnuts in the middle of the winter. Yesterday my friend decided to roast chestnuts in his oven, as we lacked the availability of an open fire to cluster round. As we waited, the music from the Korean TV show we were watching was punctated by thumps coming from the oven, indicating that the chestnuts were cooking nicely.

Perhaps a bit too nicely as it turned out. After a particularly loud 'whump' we opened the oven door and cautiously took the lid off the baking tray. One chestnut had decided to sacrifice itself for its comrades by exploding in an attempt to break out of the oven. As we took the tray out, another chestnut exploded between my friend's feet (and resulting, I'm ashamed to say, in a shriek from me). Evidently this was another noble attempt to save the rest by attacking us. Unfortunately for them, it had the opposite effect, as we decided to quickly stab all the remaining chestnuts to release the air inside before they all turned into little suicide bombers. There was one last stand by a chestnut I stabbed, as it retaliated with a stream of hot juice across my arm and the chair behind.

Unexpected excitment from an evening snack.

For those who wish to roast their own chestnuts in a more peaceful manner, this is what you should do

1. Cut a cross into the skin of the chestnut, to act as a steam vent whilst cooking. This will prevent the kamikaze attacks characteristic of the sort I described above.
2. Put the chestnuts in a metal roasting tray, and place into a preferably preheated oven at about 225 degrees centrigrade.

3. After about 20-25 minutes they should be cooked.

4. Peel whilst warm. You could turn the oven off and keep the chestnuts warm in it whilst you peel a few at a time.

overworked

My blog may become a shrine, or at the very least, an advertising space for PhD comics, but they're just so accurate...
The rate at which things disappear FROM my to-do list - 3 lines/week

The rate at which things appear ON my to-do list - 12 lines/week (or if you take the rate of interest over the time period during which I have a meeting with my supervisor - 2 lines/5 minutes)

That latter is limited only by the speed at which I can write down and make semi-sense out of his comments.

US presidential elections- the final round

After all the awaiting and speculating, we will know who the next president of the United States will be in less than 48 hours. Although Barack Obama appears to have a clear lead in all the US national opinion polls at the moment, none of the spectating news reporters and politicians are willing to say for sure who will win in the end. There has been a lot of ups and downs during the course of the primaries and in the run up to these final elections, and they're too aware that it could still change.

I would say the current 'down' in the world economy has really helped Obama. The Republican party doesn't have a good track record with keeping the economy afloat - just look at what happened to the national budget under George Bush. Americans, like most of the developed world, will be more concerned with their economy and will probably be looking for a leader who can bring them through the current economical crisis. Previously, Obama's relative lack of experience was a sticking factor - but the extent of the current Wall Street crash is no more familiar to John McCain, losing him this card from his hand. Disillusioned, Americans may be more inclined to welcome the change that the Democrats are promising.

I'll be checking early on Wednesday morning to see who wins the seat in the White House (as if I could avoid finding out when I walk into my office) but other than that, I've lost interest. I'm hoping the Democrats will win, but more from the fact that I've been inclined towards the Democratic party all along, and also because I have a strong contempt for Sarah Palin. Whatever possessed John McCain to choose Palin as a running partner? I'm sure he lost a lot of votes that way - if I were eligible to vote, this strange choice of Vice-President would convince me not to vote Republican.

Unfortunately, that does not mean that I support Obama. Not that I am against him. But for all his charisma and big dreams and big promises, I've heard very little from him that truly convinces me he has the ability to carry them through. All politicians promise bigger and better things, but few deliver. Maybe I'm being too skeptical, and maybe Obama will have the chance to prove me wrong. I hope so.

But to end with a little comment on the current economic crisis - for the carrot of four years in the White House, nearly a whole year has been spent on campaigning and travelling around the USA - if you add up the phenomenal amount of money spent by both parties thus far, doesn't it sound a bit too much? I would say ridiculous, if it wasn't for the immense power the President of the United States, either in reality or in our minds. And what about the carbon cost?

Oh wait, we're talking about the USA here. They don't contribute to climate change really. Apparently.