Amazing Salad (For One)

I should have taken a photo of this, but it was too delicious and I just ate it. Try it and I dare you not to love it though.

You Will Need
3-5 baby cos lettuce leaves.
1/2 a carrot
3-4 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cucumber
1 spring onion
5-6 english spinach leaves.
7-8 unsalted cashews
1 conservative handful parmesan cheese
50g creamy goat cheese
2 tbsp spoons ranch dressing
2 tbsp good fruity olive oil
salt & pepper

You Will Do
1. Cut up the cos lettuce, carrot, tomatoes and cucumber into small bite size pieces. Throw in the cashews too while you're there.
2. In a small fry pan with a minimalistic amount of butter, toss spinach leaves for moments (only moments, you don't want them to cook just wilt slightly) and transfer to salad bowl.
3. Put cheese (both parmesan and goat cheese) on top of warm spinach leaves and let them soften slightly.
4. Mix ranch dressing and olive oil and mix well into salad. Salt and pepper only slightly to taste.
5. Cute spring onions on a diagonal so they look like pretty diamonds and throw on top as garnish.
6. Serve and enjoy!!

Your and You Are: A Logical Explanation

Call me a hardworking member of the Grammar Police, but I have always always always been annoyed when people fail to know the difference between the words YOUR and YOU'RE.

Of course I am sure that none of you indulge in such linguistically reckless behaviour, however, if you share my passion for correct use of apostrophes, I am happy for you to share this with those in need.

So! The first thing you need to know to grasp this deceptively simple concept is that a sentence with the word 'Your' will make sense when that word is replaced with 'My', and that word 'You're' is interchangeable with the phrase 'You Are'.



From there on, it is easy. Whenever you are confused about which Your/You're to use, just swap in one of these interchangeable words and that will be your reference to awesomeness.

Want to practice? Circle the appropriate Your/You're in the appropriate spot.

Your/You're reading my blog. I hope your/you're enjoying it. Hopefully this is your/you're favourite part of the day, but if not, I understand that your/you're priorities may be different to mine and I still think your/you're super cool for reading Nate-Radio!

The Conclusive Seventh Day of Wonderful Word Week

I'm not sure if anyone has been consistent with the wonderful words on display for this week, but hopefully at least one of you has added something special (or, dare I say it- wonderful) to your vocabulary. However, like all good things, this week must now end, so I present you now with the final word of this wonderful week.

Wonderful Word Week! Day #6

Wonderful Word Week! Day #5

Wonderful Word Week! Day #4

Wonderful Word Week! Day #3

Wonderful Word Week! Day #2

Wonderful Word Week! Day #1

Sometimes They Just Go For It

And more often than not, they take all the funny, too.

Back Pain Sucks

As a result of a particularly heavy helium tank on a particularly awkward angle, my back hurts.

Now, I miss everything. Walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping… All the things I took for granted during those joyful moments before I foolishly tried to lift a cylinder full of a gas that is lighter than both air and hydrogen. It's an interesting relation between how much back pain you have and how much you miss the simple things that working anatomy has to offer, how a small back ache doesn't make a big difference, but as soon as you pass that point and suddenly the pain accompanies all the little things, suddenly those little things are a great deal more important.



And what is even more interesting? How, as soon as that pain goes away, as soon as you are perfectly capable of walking, running, jumping, hopping and skipping, you go completely back to taking them for granted.



Such is life.

A Rare Political Post

I work, I pay tax. My tax goes to the Government.

This is nothing drastically out of the ordinary, 'tax', in one form or another, has existed worldwide for at least the past five thousand years (the earliest recorded case being in Egypt between 3,000 BC and 2,800 BC) and I am happy to live with that.

However, what does make me not quite so happy is when I see the Government that I (and the 21 million other residents here on this Island) support using it stupidly.

For those of you unfamiliar on the current condition of Australian Politics, here is the situation in a five point nutshell.

1. Two major parties- Labor and Liberal.

2. Labor party leader, Kevin Rudd, is ousted as Australia's Prime Minister by his own party. If Kevin Rudd was Blackbeard and the Australia Labor Party was a pirate ship, we would happily call this mutiny.

3. Julia Gillard, the second in command, takes control over Labor Party and as a result, the rest of Australia.

4. Outcry from the Australian public forces an election (nobody wants someone in charge who wasn't voted into office by the people) and Labor wins on the merit of promises such as 'No Carbon Tax'.

5. Julia Gillard, Australia's first female Prime Minister, announces a Carbon Tax, effectively backflipping on one of her most important policy's during election time.

There are more details, but I don't care to write them and (as this IS a political post) you no doubt don't care to read them. Basically, you are now caught up on the situation.

Which brings us to now... The leader of the Liberal Party, Tony Abbott has been giving ol' Prime Minister Julia Gillard grief about lying to the Australian public. Julia Gillard fires back with this:



That's right, don't use my money for healthcare, the schooling system, safer roads or even working on better Government policies! Use it to make a crappy cartoon that has no political value at all.

Because when all is said and done, I just want to fund a personal attack and a Government employed animator.

Idiots.

A Whole New E-World

As of June 28, the newest buzz on the social networking horizon is Google+, the latest venture of the $46 billion internet giant by the same name (minus the '+'). Facebook, eat your heart out, after only a single day, Google+ beta-user invites were disabled due to sheer demand alone. Now, the closest thing you can get to an invite is an email waiting list, available for sign-up here.

So now, the interest is alight with the question "what happens next?". Like all social networking sites, Google+ will not become a viable source of 'social networking' until enough people are online to make updating worthwhile. Basically, Facebook would be useless if none of your friends had it and Google+ will be useless until it reaches a tipping point. Keep in mind this is less a matter of 'if' and more a matter of 'when', but what I'm interested in is Facebook. Specifically, will it be capable of living harmony with this new addition to Interweb, or will it do what Facebook did to Myspace?



What do you think Internet people?

Sheldon Cooper eat your heart out!

Note: The video below has issues with being embedded... Enjoy the content at YouTube by following the videos suggestion =)

Sheldon Cooper (or perhaps more accurately, Doctor Sheldon Cooper) is the theoretical physicist and general genius within the nerd-speckled comedy 'The Big Bang Theory'. Which, over the last few weeks, I have grown to enjoy.

However, last night, during a brief and hilarious moment, I discovered something…

I am smarter than Sheldon Cooper, if only for a moment.

Observe the following clip, specifically from 0.18 onwards.


"Prevening", you heard it, definition and all. Now, observe this set of entries taken from UrbanDictionary*:



Note the authors and the dates of each entry?

My entry, dated Feb 26, 2008 was a solid two years (two years and one month, to be precise) before The Big Bang Theory's entry which was posted on UrbanDictionary shortly after airing on television.

Verdict? Suck it Sheldon, I am clearly two years (and one month) ahead of you!

*Or for those who don't believe the accuracy of this image, visit this link.