matt hackmann - web developer - artist - nerd

I don't usually brag, but I make the Best Fucking Spaghetti Sauce in the world (BFSS for short). Today, I am going to pass on my tried and true formula to you, my adoring Internet audience.

Step 1

Chop some onion, celery and carrots. This is known in the culinary world as mirepoix.

Step 2

Saute your mirepoix in some olive oil along with spices and other things.

Step 3

Apply a healthy dose of magic. This step is critical and you mustn't get it wrong lest you create a hideous food beast.

Step 4

Enjoy over some thin spaghetti. Not that fat stuff. Ideally, you'd also have Parmesan cheese, though I sadly did not for this instance.

Congratulations! You now can make your own BFSS to woo over whomever you please!

So, contrary to what one might believe, my at home eatings do not consist solely of hot pockets and ramen noodles (contrary to what my mother's blog might lead you to believe). Being that I actually have culinary skills, I've made some pretty bitchin' things. There was the potato salad, of course, but here are some other things that have graced my table and stomach.

I used to make a lot of pancakes in college (with various extras) because they're freakin' easy and cheap. Remembering that, relived the experience my first week in the apartment. Also decided to toss in some eggs and sausage because they are quite delicious. The eggs are a little dirty looking because I scrambled them in the sausage grease. Mmmmm......

A couple weeks ago, I got this crazy hankering for a good salad. Just tossed around some lettuce, tomatoes and cheese along with some deli meat I had lying around (it'd have gone bad soon, anyways). It was pretty awesome, but there was actually more than I could handle over the course of several days and the rest had to be tossed. Not used to cooking small quantities, am I.

My supper last night. This is a dish affectionately known in my family as "turkey balls". It's really nothing more than slightly browned balls of ground turkey simmered in some cream of mushroom soup and milk. I also mixed an egg and some breadcrumbs into the ground turkey. On top of rice, this is a pretty awesome meal.

As some of you may be aware, my time at Griffin New Media and the glamorous world of television is over. I will be moving on to bigger and better things at Winnercomm, doing web work for the Outdoor Channel it seems. At least it comes with a significant raise and the title of "web developer."

To commemorate the event, I thought I'd do a small photo montage to my old job as captured by my iPhone's camera.

I do not consider myself an Apple zealot, but I'll have to admit that they make very nice hardware. I'm completely loving my Mac Book Pro. It's doubley more awesome that my Mac mini in almost every respect. Clock speed, RAM, hard drive space, video, you name it this thing is better. And it's portable. And it gets blazing hot when it's doing heavy processing, hotter than the surface of the sun I'd say.

Yesterday I picked up my books and softwares, those being Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 (adds up to a grand total of $3000+). I loaded up CS3 immediately and had fun doing stupid Photoshop jobs all day.

I tried screwing around with FCS2 last night but didn't really get anywhere. Final Cut Pro itself seems fairly straight forward so far but I couldn't figure out Color (color grading app) which is a bummer because one thing that my videos need are to be color graded.

School doesn't start until Tuesday and I'm beginning to get a little bored. E and I have been playing Halo 2 and we watched all the Back to te Future movies, but I'm ready for school. I do have my copy of Eternal Sonata now so maybe that'll ease the pai of waiting even if just by a little bit. I could always draw, I suppose. But I don't know if I'll be able to top this:

So, last night my bros and I went to Al's concert. It was freakin' sweet! He played pretty much every song off of Straight Out of Lynwood plus most of the mainstays (Eat It, Fat, Smells Like Nirvana, etc.). For the encore he played the cellphone song to which everybody, myself included, started waving their cellphones. After that he wound up with an extended version of Albuquerque. It was simply awesome. I shunned my quiet exterior and clapped and whooed and sang with everybody else. But, you're probably saying "Shuddup, give us teh pix!" I've only got a few because getting good pictures with the crazy lighting so I'm only giving you the good ones. Sucks to be you.