Will Yums

Chocolate Silk Soymilk

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:10:40 +0000

I tried chocolate Silk soymilk today, and after the initial “that tastes weird”, it’s actually pretty good. Just remember that it’s a chocolate DRINK, not chocolate MILK. Smoother, kinda rice-y, and great for lactose-intolerant people. I’m slightly lactose-intolerant, in that I feel thirsty after drinking milk. This is refreshing. Highly recommended.

On the back of the carton, it lists “Six great reasons to love your silk”, and #6 is “It’s chocolate – need we say more?”. Nice. Also, from their website, Silk soymilk is certified Kosher OU-D, and it’s vegan-friendly. In the simplest terms, that means it’s healthy and uses no animal products(good for environment).
Hmm, also, they use wind power to run their plants. NICE! I’d love to install a windmill in my back yard, but it would be better out in the country. Solar panels? Too many trees here. Best thing I can do electricity-wise would be to move to a more energy-efficient house and buy an energy-efficient clothes dryer/washer.

On a new server

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:11:37 +0000

In order to save $33 a year in hosting, I’ve moved all of my sites to a new server(why pay for infinite space when you only use 7 GB?). If I charged myself by the hour, this transfer would have cost more than the savings. Not worth it. One example: my email might not work. However, I know I’ll appreciate it when the next bill comes around.
I’m slowly returning things back to working order, there are still some broken things. This has definitely been a learning process. I learned from my mistakes transferring THIS site, and did a much better job with my Kenny Chronicles comics site. Over half the battle is learning a new host’s control panel. GoDaddy’s control panel tries to sell you domains every chance it gets. Not annoying, but makes me wonder where their other priorities(like hosting) sit.

Future of this site:
I really don’t know how often comics and pictures will be posted here. It became so much of a mirror of KennyChronicles.com that I’ve decided to stop mirroring the comics over here, especially with the move to twice a week. If you want more Kenny Chronicles, go to the site. Please note that the comic is rated PG-13. Since all of my comiking time has been spent on the Kenny Chronicles, you’ll likely only see single pictures, with the very occasional non-Kenny comic, on this site. Oh, and the occasional Culinary Wut Wut blog entry. I still need to blog about oat burgers. Thems are good.

I will be getting the gallery of Toonfest 2007 up within a month. I put it off for a long time, and I’m now realizing how much work it’ll be. In taking pictures, I’d shoot first and ask questions later so I don’t miss anything. Therefore, lots of editing to be done.

Toonfest 2008 is coming on September 19-20, and I will be ready. I make no promises, but I hope to have that gallery up within a few weeks after Toonfest. One cartoonist showing up who’s not listed on the site is Tom Richmond, a cartoonist for MAD Magazine. He won’t be talking at the symposium, he’ll just be enjoying the festivities, and having some original MAD artwork in the gallery as usual. My art will be there too.

Palak Paneer

Garrett Williams — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:56:41 +0000

Today I’m trying palak paneer, a dish from India described on the box as “Curried spinach and cottage cheese cooked to perfection in a mild sauce.” I found this at Fox Farm Foods in Joplin, Missouri. It’s made by Ashoka, and takes 1-2 minutes to heat up in the microwave.
According to the Wikipedia entry, it’s often served with a lassi, which is a sweet milk drink from the Punjab region of India. I would SOOOOOO love to have a mango lassi with this. If you live around an Indian restaurant(not Native American, but Indian), see if they have lassis, and drink up.

The box says that it contains all natural ingredients and is suitable for vegetarians, which is nice. I like to eat healthy. Here’s what it looks like garnished with a chicken chunk from our local Charlie’s Chicken:

Now, on to eating it. The paneer is very similar to spinach dip. In fact, next thing I did after tasting just the paneer, was dip my chicken into it. It’s very good like that, too. Just like spinach dip, the spinach doesn’t come across as yucky as you might expect. In fact, did you notice the word “curried” in the description? Anytime you see “curry” or a variation thereof, that means “spicy”. Not in the sense of jalapeno or pepper spicy, but with things like ginger, green chilli and cumin. Indian spices. I don’t like spicy foods, but I can tolerate a small amount of it. The spiciness was just enough to give it flavor, and cause me to reach for my water a few times. The chicken I added has its own spices, and blends nicely with it. You can also try chips in this, since it’s so similar to spinach dip.
There are also large chunks of “Indian cottage cheese”. Tastes like mozzarella when I get a really large chunk of it. At first I thought they were potatoes, with how they’re cut. Cheese is always a good addition to spinach.

I give this palak paneer two thumbs up. It’s really not a weird dish, if you’ve tried spinach dip before. I do recommend adding something like chicken to it, though, to vary the taste a little, and in my case to dull the spiciness.

I want to see Jim Davis create a new webcomic

Garrett Williams — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:19:10 +0000

What crazy ideas might Jim have in his head? Maybe he’s already stretching the creative muscles under a pen name? He most likely wouldn’t use his real name on a non-Garfield comic. What if it’s a pretty vulgar comic?

If he’s creating a much different comic somewhere, I want to see it.

Toonfest 2008 coming soon

Garrett Williams — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:11:18 +0000

September 19-20th, two of my original comics will be on display at Toonfest in Marceline, MO(Lardy’s Jr. will be one of them). I will be there too, and would be happy to do sketches. Marceline is in northern Missouri near Kirksville and Brookfield. It’s also the boyhood home of Walt Disney, and the reason for Toonfest. Main Street USA was inspired by that very town.
There will be some big-name cartoonists there too, but the only one I recognize is Jerry Scott of Baby Blues and Zits. Ooo, gotta take my Zits book up there! Other artists speaking include Dave Coverly(Speed Bump), Jan Eliot(Stone Soup), and Greg Evans(LUANN). There’s a parade on Saturday morning with the cartoonists as the grand marshalls. RIght after noon, join us at the theater where the cartoonists talk about their work, their life, and cartooning in general. Very informative talks there. I especially recommend it for other cartoonists.

More information on Toonfest can be found at Toonfest.net. My photo galleries of past Toonfests can be found here. I’ll be updating you as the time gets closer.

Snakes on a plate (sorry)

Garrett Williams — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:57:22 +0000

wikiHow has a WIDE variety of how-tos, and when I saw this one, I decided I should know how to do this, just in case I have to kill a snake in self-defense.
HOW TO COOK A SNAKE

Panda!

Garrett Williams — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Working on a new template for the Kenny Chronicles comics and character design for a friend of Kenny’s. The final design will likely look different from this smiling freak.

Hi from my lunch break!

Garrett Williams — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:00:00 +0000

As I was waiting to clock in yesterday, I drew this little guy in the style of those crazy critters from Pinkerton Park. He was originally supposed to be Buckley from said comic, but I hadn’t drawn him before and I didn’t have reference material, so it’s a mouse!

Webcomics referenced in Foxtrot today!

Garrett Williams — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:01:32 +0000

Today’s Foxtrot comic made reference to 2 of my favorite webcomics, plus one that I’m not gamer enough to get, and I think one I’ve never heard of. That’s right, FOUR webcomics in total! Hmm, I wonder how this would translate to foreign papers, seeing as these webcomics aren’t in any other language. In fact, I think most newspaper readers wouldn’t get the references because they get their comics in paper form. I found out about this mention through Scott Kurtz’s Twitter feed, in fact.

Update: Here are the comics being parodied:
Penny Arcade
PVP
XKCD
The Joy Of Tech

(Thanks to PVP for revealing who that last one was)

Boomers

Garrett Williams — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:21:39 +0000

Recently, we finally bought our digital TV converter boxes*, and are really enjoying the THREE PBS stations we’re getting with it. We’re really enjoying the Create channel. While I was eating my mac & cheese & hot dogs, I decided to see what was on that channel. They were showing how to make pies, and the first one used vegan butter. Hmm, never heard of that. Looking online, it’s basically normal margarine. I figured vegans had found some plant that simulates butter well. They did well with soy milk(as long as you don’t expect it to taste like milk).

Then they had a segment called “Boomer Fitness”. My first thought was kangaroos. Aussies call male kangaroos “boomers” because they make a loud booming sound with their feet to warn their mob of danger. Yes, a group of kangaroos is called a “mob”. Then I realized they were referring to baby boomers(i.e. “old people” …just kidding). I always hear them called “Baby boomers”, so without “baby”, “kangaroo” is what I think of. Add to that, that we’re getting a “Kangaroo Gym” nearby(youth fitness center), and it’s no surprise that “Boomer Fitness” got me thinking of kangaroos.

*(On digital converter boxes: In February of 2009, United States TV stations are switching to 100% digital. Cable & Satellite subscribers won’t be affected, but people who use antennas will have to either have a digital TV or a digital converter box. One nice advantage of digital TV is that it shows the name of what you’re watching, like satellite has done for a while.)