Smoke curled up through my fingers.

Back again? Perhaps. I think I should start updating one of these blogs sooner or later. How many do I have now?
. . .
maybe two or three. And when was the last time I wrote anything significant in any of them?
. . .
HA! I'm fixin to alter that trend pretty soon here.

Nate's Homeowrk

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For all the kids...

What's up world. It has been a year since I last left an entry? That is gobble-di-gook! As much as I wish I could say I have been too busy, I can not! Life has been fairly slow lately. I am still going to school which is no shift in position since the last you viewed this space. However, I did shift the position of the schools from Oregon to Michigan. It was a good move... necessary. I started another blog, sircollins.tumblr.com, but I do not suspect it to gain much momentum; not yet at least. I anticipate having some more creative thoughts so check back soon as I gather more material for publishing.

Lately, I have just been really impressed with school and being involved with internet facets/opportunities. So keep an eye out. This should be fun.

I have been really into some cool podcasts, websites and such:

1. This Week in Law
2. NY Times
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. YouTube (RayWJ!)
6. Reuters

And that's about it for now, but you can totally check them out... it's fun. I'll see you soon, Forum.

Recipe: Beef stock.

BEEF STOCK

INGREDIENTS
-4 lbs of beef with bones
-1 medium yellow onion, cut into 8 pieces
-3 celery stalks cut into 3 inch sections
-2 carrots, cut into 3 inch sections
5 garlic cloves, whole, smashed
3 whole Bay leaves, dried
5 whole peppercorns, black mostly, but medley is acceptable
4 Tablespoons Kosher salt

DIRECTIONS
Roast beef bones with meat on in 250 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and place in 6.4 quart pot and fill with cold water until 2 1/2 inches from top. Bring to boil and insert all ingredients. Reduce heat to simmer. Keep the mixture at a simmer for 3 1/2 hours. You may stir whenever you like, but skim hot fat (it looks like oil) off the top and place in separate container. While the stock is timing out set up a station that will accept 60 ounces of stock. Include in the station a fine net strainer over the container. For the container, I have seen a 5 gallon bucket used for larger quantities, but I just use Tupperwares because of the comparatively small amount. Run the entire batch through the strainer and discard whole, solid objects. All of the veggies should be very mushy and tasteless because they shared their flavor with the stock. Allow stock to refrigerate for up 24 hours and remove the white, fat top layer that has aggregated. Now, your stock is done. If you are not using the stock immediately, you can freeze into ice cubes or whole stocks - chicken, beef, veal, lamb, etc - are used in laboratories as growth mediums because they are so nutrient rich bacteria grows very fast.

Winter starts tomorrow.

Los Angeles was really fun. I spent the majority of the vacation there with Maia and Reilly. We did everything together which was surprisingly pleasant and a nice way to spend the holidays. The weather was great. 70s and sunny almost every day. We went on hikes by the coast out by Malibu. We saw the movie, "Doubt."
So tomorrow the new term starts! I am very excited about this term and the next. My Biology series is really demanding and really rewarding. I feel like since it is a great challenge I learn the most about myself along with the topic, and that seems irreplaceable. It makes me smarter and a better student. I feel great about starting term tomorrow. See you soon!

Ticks, Santa Cruz & vicinity.

Santa Cruz was pretty fun if you enjoy babbling brooks, giant redwoods and deer ticks crawling all over you.
First thing I I did when I arrived was buy some delicious, highly-recommended Brazilian food with Maia. It was delicious and then it was off to the redwood forest with our host, Jessica Saatdjian, her girlfriend, Meg, brother Damien and his friend, Alicia. It was fun and we went off-trail and found a super sweet swimming hole. Then we trekked around for a little bit along the banks and rocks and headed to our new, fourth home, so far. At home, we just then began to notice little ticks scurrying around our bodies! My intention is not to lead you, the reader, to assume the we were infested. In all, we only found five ticks on our bodies cumulatively. Maia was the only one who was lucky enough to be eaten by one. It was right under the waistband on her jeans! AHHH! Oh man, so for the rest of Santa Cruz we were all scratching our necks and pits and everything and having each other do visual inspections constantly paranoid that there was a tick somewhere. Ugh. The rest of the time was really nice. Maia and I walked many miles, as usual.
I may come back and add more later, but for now this will suffice. Santa Cruz was kind of uneventful. I did have this breakfast meal, Corned beef hash and eggs w/ potatoes. It was pretty awesome and that was in downtown Santa Cruz.
Is your interest still peaked about the damn wet-suit surfing, Jas?

Count.

Does this count as a blog toward my ten? If it does not, then it should. The other blogs I have written are pretty extensive, or, at least, they should be. Did I mention I love to cook? I think I may post some recipes on here when I get home. If you would like to read some of my recipes then let me know and I will, for sure, post some.

Also, check out Chuck Pahluniuk. It is good reading.