Valio La Pena

I don’t always do it, but I try my best to keep up with fellow bloggers. I honestly feel like I’m doing something wrong with how I go about my days because I hardly ever have time to juggle my small list of hobbies. I mean, I’ve been itching to read a book for months now but I can’t sit down and enjoy it knowing I have posts to write, games to play, and shows to watch.

Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that I really enjoy reading the blog posts that aren’t centered around a recipe. You know, those random garbles of stuff that happened throughout the week, usually in list form but they don’t have to be. To me, those posts really show the person behind the blog. And I love that.

I’ve been thinking about it and I wanted to start my own weekly thingamajig. So here we are at my first Humpday Update.

• Among other places, the name Humpday Update comes from an old gaming podcast I used to listen to called Sarcastic Gamer. I stopped listening years ago because of how drastically their format changed, but it’s looking like they’re trying to go back to the way they were. Guess I’ll try them again soon.

• Speaking of podcasts, if you don’t listen to any, you should. I was thinking of even dedicating posts to some episodes that might be worth it.

• If you don’t follow me on Twitter or Instagram, then you wouldn’t know that we now own a minivan. You also wouldn’t know my son and I dubbed it Iron Van because of the color and all the automatic moving parts. While I thought my extraordinarily high level of cool would’ve taken a drastic dip, I’m actually pretty used to it already and think it’s a great upgrade. Especially after I hook it up to look like Iron Man.

• My laptop’s battery has decided to revolt against me. Not only does it last for about 5 minutes unplugged, it also tries to burn me when it is plugged in. So in retaliation, I resurrected my old tablet. An OG, ASUS Transformer. I gave it a factory reset; only added the basics back on it and it’s not half bad. Well, it’s still slow as dirt, but it works.

• I made a 4 layer chocolate cake for my sister in-law’s boyfriend’s birthday. They said they “weren’t ready for how chocolatey” it was. I think that deserves a pat on the back, don’t you?

• Speaking of naked cakes, Wilton’s Sweet Up was this passed Friday. As a Wilton Sweet Treat Team member I was invited to attend but I couldn’t. I was totally fine with it but once I saw all the stuff that was going on I was fairly bummed I didn’t make it. Glad everyone that did attend had fun though!

• We just watched, for the first time, the season 3 finale of Game of Thrones. Since I read the book I wasn’t in a rush to see what happened, and the wife didn’t care to continue after seeing the Red Wedding. But we finally did it and I’m glad we can just go straight into season 4 now.

• Speaking of season 4.. freaking spoilers! Everywhere there’s spoilers. I can’t blame anyone because it was crazy stuff; and I knew what was going to happen but the wife didn’t. So we were both kinda upset that was ruined for her. But whaddaya gonna do? It’s the internet.

• Staying on Game of Thrones, I told myself I’m going to read A Dance with Dragons once season 4 is done, but first I need to read the other books I’ve been wanting to read.

• I’ve had The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown sitting here for years. The amount of dust I blew off it was absurd. And for what? So it could sit in my nightstand drawer unread instead. I need to get on that but 2 things are stopping me: 1) time and my lack of proper management for it, and 2) it’s an actual book. Now, I love books. Turning the pages, feeling the weight, smelling the ink, all that stuff. But digital fits my lazy lifestyle so much better. Excuses be damned, I have to read!

• I have every episode of The Freshman Class: Santa Cruz recorded on the dvr. It’s yet another reality series on Cooking Channel, this time based on following culinary students during their freshman year of culinary school. I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it because i know it’ll bring back my PTSD of my time in culinary school. I think I’ll just delete them all or else I’m going to be waking up in cold sweats, and beating up the pillow while screaming “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S NOT ENOUGH SALT!?”

• Lastly, there’s a trailer I wanted to share. I just started following the film thanks to Robert Downey Jr. joining Twitter. I’m not big on going to the movies like I used to be. I try not to get hyped up if I’m not going to be able to watch it till it hits blu ray, but this makes it hard to resist:

Chef, written and directed by Jon Favreau, is (in a nutshell from what I gather) a movie about a chef (Favreau) who feels tied down working his job in the kitchen, winds up losing his job, then goes out and gets a food truck and rekindles his passion. This trailer got me extremely excited to watch it for a few reasons.

First, there’s a great cast! Second, it looks relatable on many levels. I used to hate when we in the kitchen weren’t given the freedom to come up with our own dishes. Because let me tell you something.. If you walk into any respectable kitchen and tell them you want something they like to make that is not on the menu, odds are you’ll get a plate that will put anything else you’ve ever had there to shame. Where I used to work, each guy on the line used to have 2 or 3 dishes that he made on the side. Whether it be for him or for the whole kitchen, there was always something. But anyway.. just from the trailer I could see the film is going to capture those emotions.

It’s also relatable because I’ve always had this strange desire to run a food truck. Since day 1 of school I’ve never had any care for opening my own restaurant, unlike everyone else it seemed. But I always said I’d love my own little pizzeria, bakery, or food truck. It just seems so much more logical, not to mention fun. And I think the movie is going to heighten the popularity of food trucks even more since it’s already been booming for a few years now.

On top of all that, I love cooking movies. They’re usually charming and almost always inspiring. There’s always something about a cooking movie that makes me miss working in a kitchen. So if it something comes out and it centers around a restaurant or kitchen then it will get my attention. I remember working in a hotel and going to a midnight screening of Waiting…. At the time, it was the greatest movie ever made. The theater was full of restaurant workers who were laughing, clapping, and cheering throughout the whole movie. It was a great experience that taught me there will always be an audience for these types of movies. Other favorites of mine are No Reservations (which is currently on the dvr), Spanglish (that egg sandwich he makes, my goodness), and of course Ratatouille – which captures working in the kitchen amazingly well for an animated film. There’s also the short lived, 13 episode show Kitchen Confidential, based on the similarly titled book by Anthony Bourdain, which stars a fairly young Bradley Cooper. The fact that it’s a sitcom based on one of the best culinary books out there should have grabbed you, but I know Bradley Cooper is what got your attention. I pride myself in knowing that show existed, that I watched it when it was airing, and that I own it on dvd. If you’ve never heard of it go check it out! And if you’re wondering, I still have Eat Pray Love and Julie & Julia on my list of movies to watch someday.

And that’s about that. I got a little wordy like always so I’m kinda missing the point on the whole brief update thing. But this was my first one! Should I try to tone it down next week or was it fine? Let me know!

Also let me know what’s your favorite cooking movie. And if you’ve ever heard of Bradley Cooper’s Kitchen Confidential.

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