Just recently I had grilled octopus (it was a special) in a Mediterranean restaurant and absolutely loved it. I had decided that it had become my favorite comestible sea animal . Unfortunately, I found out that octopus at restaurants is extremely rare, and that it is very hard to make yourself. When I looked up recipes for octopus I found that the key to making good octopus recipes lies in tenderizing the octopus, otherwise it will have a rubbery consistency. Unfortunately, there is no established way to go about tenderizing an octopus. Many recipes are cryptic in that they simply say "tenderize the octopus." Upon further research, I found that the best, tender octopus experiences were had when the tenderizing method included beating the octopus over a table or another hard object for quite a while. Someone suggested letting it simmer for an hour, some said a half hour, depending on the size of the octopus. Overall, the tenderizing process is seen as the anathema of making octopus because if it goes wrong, the dish is ruined. Hopefully one day I will be able to make an octopus dish as tasty as I had in the restaurant.

Big Brother reference in Texas Pilot's suicide note

A pilot, Joseph Stack, in Texas crashed his plane into an IRS building in a furious rage against the IRS and society. One person who works in the 200 employee building was unaccounted for and two were hospitalized, while two bodies were found in the building. In Stack's suicide note read many disturbing things including a reference to George Orwell's big Brother. His note reflected many of the things that are prominent in Orwell's Party dominated society.

The following are quotes taken directly from Stacks suicide letter (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586627,00.html)

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

"We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse."

Many of Orwell's ideas from 1984 are overt in today's society. Unfortunately, Stack could not deal with the problems he faced, or thought he faced, and took out his anger through violence.

As Stack said in his suicide letter:

"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

Just recently I watched a documentary on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCeosUmw) about a blind boy, now a parvenu (he has been on Opera and in various other shows and magazines), who uses echolocation to "see". Echolocation is the method dolphins and bats use to locate objects by sound, clicking and projecting sound waves forth, then interpreting the sound waves that bounce back as objects. The video shows him rollerskating, playing his gameboy, and dribbling and shooting a basketball. Not once in these actives was he maladroit. An outsider wouldn't believe Ben is blind as his movements and actions look like that of someone how has perfect vision. Not being a credulous person I doubted that this could be possible. However, the documentary goes on to tell how Ben has developed a sonar mind. It tells of submarine sonar operators who go through extensive training that teaches them how to use their sonar machines on the submarine to locate objects in the water. The sonar operaters must study the sounds to determine the size, shape and distance using machines that cost millions of dollars. Somehow, Ben has managed to train his brain to do the work of million dollar sonar machines. All throughout the documentary Ben remains sang-froid completely unperturbed by the fact that he is blind. Ben states he wants to live on his own and that being independent will not be hard. However, later in the documentary (Part 3) the narrator states that Ben may be quixotic, and must realize he has limits, despite his extrodinary skill. Ben parent's tried to send Ben to a school for the blind for year before he started highschool, however it quickly became an anathema for Ben, who functioned better than most of the other students. Later on, Ben recieved training from another blind person (Dan) who uses echolocation for mobility. However, Ben deprecated the thought of using a cane which Dan and Ben's mother both pushed him to do. Ben thought that he was not handicapped and that the cane would label him falsely. Dan's training showed Ben that even echolocation has limits and that later on a cane would be necessary. Ben, being only 14, was obdurate and showed choler whenever somehow suggested the use of a cane.