This meme tag this is going around, and my good friend Sahil wants to know 5 things about me, some of which he already knows but the rest of you don’t, so here it is:
1. I wanted to be a chef: Yuppers. I wanted to cook for a living, and still would love to address an opportunity at it. If I won the lottery or something, I guarantee you that I would be in Chicago at a top chef school in the world learning how to cook and then open my own restaraunt. I love to cook, I really, really do. I don’t do it very often, but I worked for a trained chef for about 2 years and he taught me so much. He really made me fall in love with cooking. As a matter of fact, here is one of my wife’s favorite dishes which I quickly whipped up last night. Its very fast and healthy.
Capellini Pomodoro
Cook a whole bunch of either angel hair or vermicelli pasta. While the pasta is cooking, over moderately low heat, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (yes, it MUST be olive oil) in a large sauce pan, around 8” would be best. You’ll notice I say “about” or “so much” cuz I really never use measuring instruments, but I know apprx. how much I’m putting in. Ok, so it only takes 2 mins or so for the oil to heat up, so toss is 2 minced garlic cloves. Keep them covered in oil and don’t let it sit in one place too long; keep the garlic moving and cook it until it begins to turn very light brown. This will take about 2 minutes. Now take 6 diced roma tomatoes and dump them in the sauce pan (this is why you need such a large sauce pan). Stir the tomato mixture for a several minutes. Don’t STIR stir, but stir easy. You don’t want to break down the tomatoes. We are really just heating them up and getting them covered in the garlic-oil mixture. Now its about time to drain the pasta, so do that, dump it in a large bowl, and dump the tomato mixture in with it. Add a large handful of grated parmesan cheese and mix this all up. Serve hot. This takes less than 15 mins to prep and cook, and it tastes awesome!
2. I hate bugs and spiders. Yeah, nasty, filthy creatures. They make me want to cry. Don’t want to look at them, touch them or have anything to do with them except take part in their mass extinction for those who live in my house, garage and yard.
3. I have been a worldwide #1 ranked gamer, in more than 1 game. That, of course, are rankings provided by 3rd party sites such as splatterladder and others through the years. But seriously, in both Enemy Territory and Star Wars: Jedi Knight II (Jedi Outcast) – Jedi Master mode, I have been ranked on more than one occasion by these external services as the top player in the world. I quit playing Jedi Knight over 2 years ago, and quit playing Enemy Territory about a year ago.
4. I have 4 tattoos. One is an “RJ” on my left shoulder, which stands for Raymond and Jana (my wife). The 2nd is an eastern dragon (no arms, no legs, no wings. serpent-like) on my right calf. This is because I was born in the year of the dragon according to the Chinese zodiac. The 3rd is a western dragon on my left calf (large wings, horns, legs, arms, claws, what you are probably most familiar with a dragon looking like). This is because I am Welsh (traditionally an origin of many a European dragon folklore and legend) and a dragon is on my family crest and flag. The 4th is the name of my late son, Drew, on my right arm.
5. I very rarely code at home. That’s right. I spend time with my daughter, I go to the gym, I watch History, Discovery, TLC, Military channels and the like. I play a text based MUD with my sister (Medievia), the only game I continue to play to this day. I’ve given up all other games. I also like to browse through myspace junk. I don’t do much with my MySpace (myspace.com/rlewallen), but I like to see other people and bands and groups and stuff. Its fun. Feel free to add me as a friend on myspace. I love looking up other peoples stuff.
Ok, so I’m going to tag Jon Skeet, Matt Berther, Stefano Demiliani, Rob Howard, and Ayende Rahien.