The Nature of Good and Evil

It amuses me whenever I hear people described in such terms as good or evil. To me, it's such a childish notion, instilled into us by fairy tales and cartoons and reinforced by Sunday school. Parents tell their children to "be good" when they really mean "do as I say". My theory is that while we are young, absolute concepts such as good or strong or hot are much easily able to be absorbed by our brains than relative concepts, so we latch on to such fallible ideals.

It did strike me as odd, when during a conversation I had with a Christian friend of mine a month back, that some people still believe in absolute good and evil. Not just believe, but vehemently defend these ideals as set up by the Church. Normally I try to understand others' viewpoints but in this particular scenario I was stuck.

It has since occurred to me that it's been a very, very long time since I've thought of anything - human or otherwise - in those terms. As I've grown up I've learned that conflict is often between one person's beliefs and someone else who doesn't share that belief, not between some unseen forces taking place in a religious wonderland.

I'm not saying that everyone is always right, but the truth is that trying to categorize human interaction into abstractions is not satisfactory. Many people do not comprehend that there are other views of the world, as others have had their lives shaped by events and circumstances which differ from their own. Without this understanding there will continue to be conflict.

Bachelor of Commerce

I work in a university so I think about this question a lot:

What is the point of tertiary education?

Once upon a time people would go to universities for higher education, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the subject in question.

These days it seems that people just want degrees to get a job. And I think it's a real shame. The level of student enrolments in Accounting courses across Australia is mind-bogglingly high, but where Arts and Science programmes teach students to appreciate depth of knowledge, Commerce teaches them to appreciate big profits. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but essentially Commerce courses teach occupational skills.

Incidentally, even research preferences on profitable projects rather than those with good social benefits.

It's true that all things need to evolve, including universities. But it's a sombre reflection of our society when our leading educational institutions are nothing more than training facilities for white-collar workers.

I hope that at some point in the future, quality education will once again become the primary focus of universities. In the meantime, I guess I will just have to tolerate the idea that somehow a Bachelor of Commerce is comparable to a Bachelor of Arts or Science.

I Believe

I just wanted to write a short post to remember Stephen Gately, one of the singers from the 90's Irish boyband Boyzone, who died last week.

I had never thought about him this way until now, but when he came out to the public in 1999, it had a massive effect on me and my self-confidence. I think in a way it strengthened my resolve to see a celebrity embrace his sexuality so openly.

His brief solo career included the release of I Believe, one of my favourite pop tunes from 2000.

Rod Laver Arena

As usual I'm terrible at taking pictures. I always think about taking it and then think to myself, "why would I want to take a pic of THAT?"

So in the end, I ended up with like three pictures, all of which was taken over the first few days of the trip. Here they are:


Tournament venue! Well, not quite, the actual venue is the function centre next to the arena, but close enough ;)


This is a rather awkward pic of me (but not of my face lol). It's actually kinda artistic though, so I'm posting it.


Hurray our hotel has a kitchen! Pity there were no saucepans and cooking utensils...

National Equality March in the USA

Today is the National Equality March through Washington D.C., in a demonstration of solidarity for equal protections to be established in civil law across all fifty states of America. We in Australia cannot attend this rally, but please give it some thought nonetheless. It's worth paying attention to its outcomes as Australian politics are inevitably influenced by those of our more powerful ally.

So whether you're part of the equality movement or not, spare a thought today for those of us who are yet to have access to equal treatment under the law.

Edit: Another policy from the US to get worked up about is its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" anachronism. An interesting (if anecdotal) article about it here.

Cooking Diary: Wonton Noodle Soup

As mentioned in the miscellaneous post earlier this week, here are some pics from the wonton noodle soup:

Wrapping wontons.

Finished wrapping!

A mix of pork wontons and prawn wontons.

I've made these a fair few times, and they've been quite favourably received by everyone, but this time I was surprised by how delicious the pork wontons were. Here's the filling that I used:

200g pork mince
1 tbsp spring onion, finely sliced
1 tsp ginger, crushed

2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp five-spice powder

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, then cover and marinate for at least half an hour before wrapping in wonton skins.

Cooking Diary: Sweet and Sour Prawns

I cooked this dish two weeks ago, but haven't managed to find the time to post it up.

I've been trying a number of different combinations of ingredients to make the sweet and sour sauce. I don't particularly like sour food, and so this following recipe is my favourite as it produces a sauce that's sweet, mellow, but still tangy:

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup white sugar

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tbsp ginger, thinly sliced

2 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 yellow capsicum, diced
1 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup pineapple chunks in syrup
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp water

1) Place vinegar and sugar into a saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to simmer. Add garlic and ginger and simmer for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, dissolve cornflour in water and set aside.

2) Turn up the heat to medium. Add wine, soy sauce, tomato paste, capsicum and onion and cook until onions start turning transparent but before they soften.

3) Stir in pineapple chunks with syrup, and cornflour mixture. Cook until the sauce thickens then remove from heat.

The sauce is now ready to be served with the choice of meat. Usually the meat is deep-fried, but I find it's often fine to have it pan-fried instead.

I'll note that there are many, many different versions of sweet and sour sauce on the internet, and this is just another one to add to the list. It's definitely worth trying though if you're like me and prefer something sweeter and with more depth.

Cooking Diary: Big Breakfast!

This is as unhealthy as it gets folks! Vege sausages, eggs and pineapples fried in oil. Mmmmm. What a great way to start the morning before flying to Melbourne!

I've scheduled a few posts to come up over the weekend so at least there'll be a few updates whilst I'm playing.

miscellaneous post - Labour Day long weekend

It's been a hectic few days; lots of cooking, eating, gaming, and even some deep philosophical discussion thrown in for good measure.

We had a friend stay over during the weekend, so I decided to cook up some old favourites such as steamed fish, sweet and sour pork, garlic prawns, sichuan chicken, and mushroom and tofu soup for a friday feast. Stir-fried some fresh scallops on Saturday which came out quite nicely - but forgot to take a photo! Then to finish off, we made wontons on Monday. (post to come)

In between, we spent Sunday eating out. Mamak is a restaurant in the Sydney CBD which serves Malaysian cuisine. It was nice, although I didn't realise that Malaysian cuisine involved so much frying. The roti canai was probably the highlight of the meal, as it was simple, delicious, and cheap too!

At night we dined at AJ's, which is one of my favourite Indian restaurants - if a little pricey - and then followed that up with the movie "Up" in 3D. The movie is nice, but since it's a kiddie movie through and through, there isn't really much more to analyse or say about it. However I do feel like I have to point out that wearing 3D glasses over normal glasses is rather awkward.

One thing I really like about the aforementioned friend is that every so often we would have these d&m's about various things, and this visit was no exception. I'll leave the details for another post though. (post to come)

Upcoming is a ten-day trip to Melbourne, including this next weekend playing Magic, and so I also managed to spend a fair amount of time thinking about the game - although I mostly failed to actually get to any of the mini-tournaments. There's not much to write about except to comment that the sealed-deck type of tournament is now susceptible to very high variance, such that I feel vulnerable about my chances of making the cut to the second day this weekend, much less defend the Australasian Grand Prix title itself.

So, big tournament aside, I hope that the following week will be quite relaxing. Melbourne is a great city to visit and enjoy. The downside is that access to internet will be limited, and so the blog will be a bit quiet. I do have a lot on my mind though so I'll still try and keep posting while away. It's times like these I wish I had a laptop!

Cooking Diary: Red Bean Soup

This is probably one of my favourite desserts to cook, and I've cooked it many times in the past few months. Possibly not as easy as it should be, because I find it's very likely to either boil over, or dry up and burn if you're not careful.


In any case the finished product is fantastic, a heavy sweet soup with just enough texture to finish off a meal!

Back on TV

When I get into something, I often really get into it, and such is the way with me and some specific TV shows.

So for the last couple of nights, I've been spending a few hours in front of the television to tune in to some old (and new) favourites:

* NCIS is back on our airwaves for the 7th season, hurray! The first episode was kinda weak but for continuity purposes I suppose it was good enough. I actually like this show better when the team is out solving random cases, instead of following the long-term plot.

* NCIS:LA is new and the first ep aired last night. I was a little bit disappointed in that there wasn't enough investigating and a bit too much action in its place. Chris O'Donnell is easy on the eyes but really, both leads seem to play into the cliched crime scene investigator mould whereas the original series had more quirky leads. The supporting characters appear to be quirky enough though, so I do have hope for this show.

* Celebrity Masterchef. I was greatly into the original, but sadly I'm not sure that I'm really going to get into this one. This celebrity spin-off from the first season appears to be more of an elimination game, which is disappointing because I found that the charm of the show came from seeing people do what they're doing (cook) under a variety of different circumstances, not all of which were competitive. Oh well, I guess it'll do for now until the second season comes back on.

* Glee is a fairly new show that appears to be built on a pretty novel concept - a musical show in a sitcom! It claims to be more than you'd expect from a musical series, but I'm not sure what exactly I'm expecting from such a thing since I can't recall any other. What I'm not expecting is depth of plot but if that's what you're looking for, then TV is probably not the best place to look anyway.

A couple of other shows are due to return to our airwaves soon too; I'm particularly looking forward to the witty scripting of Desperate Housewives, and the neat interactions of characters in Brothers and Sisters.