Zer0 Gravitas

Its time to confront the fact that I watch American Idol

2011-05-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that it would come down to this, but yes I do watch AI like millions of other folks who have nothing better to do. Now that the confession is out of the way. I got a sinking feeling when I realized that this chick was going to perform a led zep song. But she kicked its ass. It rocked and I could actually understand the words she was singing (unlike the original).

Latest version of WorkPlayAway

2011-03-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a screen-cast sales pitch for the latest version of WorkPlayAway.

Check out the bottom of the list

2011-03-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

Apparently this is from some recent episode of the Simpsons (its still on? really?). I went to LBCC and I have no idea why it made this list (haven't been there lately tho) Anyway somehow this list just brings a smile to my face. Nostalgia maybe as a bay area transplant?

Dear American Idol Producers...

2011-03-03T23:40:00.001-08:00

Some pop songs that I think some of this year's contestants could do justice to:
Heart of Gold - Neal Young
Lido Shuffle - Boz Scaggs
Moondance - Van Morrison

just a thought -- possibly not even a good one

How we got to San Jose today

2011-02-25T23:16:00.001-08:00

Today the weather was looking not quite so nice and we were headed back to San Jose from the OC we had just had lunch at a Chipotle on Beach so that was where I hopped on to the 405. It was about 1:30 and I decided to let the GPS make all the route decisions and have faith that the little GPS god suspended from the suction cup attached to my windshield knew best. This map shows the route we took in the rain. Right off the bat the GPS did what I would not normally do and sent us up 605 to the 5, That did not seem so odd to me though I would normally just tool up 405 all the way up to 5. We we just getting towards downtown when we found ourselves in some heavy looking traffic and the GPS said I could take an alternate route and save time and I went with it. It told me to get off 5 at Dittman and then head up Whittier. Basically we were going through Boyle Heights, strangely enough, in all my years as a LA-dweller I had never been in Boyle Heights before... eventually Whittier wound up going over the LA river and turned in to 6th and then the GPS decided we should turn right on to Alameda. This headed us through Japantown where we hung a left on to 1st Street in order to go past LA City Hall and the Walt Disney Concert Hall (which I had never seen first hand). After passing under the 110 we hung a right on to Beaudry then a left on to Temple which ran right alongside 101 until we made a right on to Glendale. Glendale took us past Echo Park (again never been there before) and ended up dumping us on to the Glendale Freeway. That was a fun adventure. I gotta let the GPS take charge more often.

Can we please declare a news hiatus on the budget?

2011-02-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

There seems to really no point in this news, other than raising my blood pressure. Making a budget is like making sausage and best left unseen. I hope and pray that Obama will stick to his guns and gets something realistic done. Lets just wait and see what comes out. Either there will be a budget or there will be a government shutdown. And whichever event occurs we can decide what it means and whom should be held accoutable.

TTBOOK -- Chuck Close

2011-02-16T13:12:00.000-08:00

To The Best Of Our Knowledge (aka TTBOOK) is one of my podcasts. This episode has a great interview with Chuck Close. I found it inspirational because Chuck talks about how he works around his various cognitive and physical handicaps to continue creating art. I want to emulate the attitude of creativity that flows through him.

Whacky Government Proposals - No Bankruptcy for States

2011-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Many many states are now in deep financial messes to the point of disaster. And now folks are whispering the idea that the states should be allowed to go bankrupt (which, for those of you late to the party, they are currently not allowed to do under our constitution).

I don't think bankruptcy for states is the answer because what it means is that many, many public employees (full disclosure - my girlfriend is a teacher) who have baked pensions into their plans for retirement are likely fucked in favor of investors. I think federal bailouts for the states is the answer. And that needs to be followed up with longer term systemic changes to prevent the states from overcommitting like this ever again. We really need something like the Fed for state government. Only instead of controlling the money supply they need to control long term financial commitments. The main thing is that we need folks who are politically neutral and have life-time appointments to control promises that politicians make on pensions (and other things) where the timeframe for chickens to roost is on the order of decades. Actually I could see it being very much like the judicial system since this is is very technical field which requires professionalism and is necessary at levels of government from city to county to state. Of course this is all very muddled in my head and is probably not my uniquely brilliant idea. But there it is.

latest game obsession

2011-02-03T15:46:00.001-08:00

I was quite an angry birds addict for a couple of weeks there but now I am down to just two levels that have me stumped with only two stars and hence the birds are now on the back burner. Then I got turned on to soosiz which is also fun and I am playing it off and on. But yesterday thanks to lifehacker I discovered lumosity and I said "ooooh shiny'. the only downside is that they want a subscription which seems a little goudgy.

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Money can't buy happiness but neither can poverty. - Leo Rosten

Making Lemons out of Lemonade

2011-01-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

... or something like that...
Anyway, the Curried Chicken Tenders from the other night have been
recycled into Curried Chicken Salad (aka the CCT + some raisins + some
finely chopped celery + enough mayonaise to make it vaguely spreadable
on bread). And it is actually now edible and somewhat tasty. Damn I
am good!

Things Not to Get From Trader Joe's

2011-01-23T19:59:00.001-08:00

In general we love TJs, but tonight we tried the Curried Chicken
Tenders. And I have to say they tasted like rat barf - no never gonna
get these again.

Tonight's Dinner Brought To You By America's Test Kitchen

2011-01-16T19:59:00.001-08:00

Pork Chops and Poblanos Rajas From the 30 Minute Suppers Winter 2010 issue. (Page 33).
The girlfriend told me it was excellent. It was simple and done in the promised 30 minutes.
I have now tried several recipes from the crew at America's Test Kitchen (et alia) and so far I am impressed. The recipes include good time-saving tips and include important details that instill confidence and most importantly, they are written giving you an organized time-saving approach to produce what they promise in the time promised.

For example to make rajas you have to char the peppers in order to remove the skins and the recipe tells you exactly how to get this done simply, safely and efficiently (by cutting them in half, seeding them and then putting them three inches below your broiler and broiling for 7-9 minutes). This is as opposed to some recipes which will just say something like "char and peel your peppers" and leave it that. I have watched this done on several cooking shows by doing them over an open flame but that is very time consuming and chef intensive process.

That and they order the steps to coordinate the process of producing the meal not just individual dishes. In this case it was

Prep the peppers and start to broil them
While the roasting is going on you start the pork chops - five minutes on each side in a frying pan
And then while peppers and pork chops are cooking you can chop up onions which you will need later
Once the peppers are done you peel them and slice them into strips
When the chops are ready you put them on a plate and tent them.
And in the same pan did the peppers in you start to brown the onions for about seven minutes
And then throw in the pepper strips and spices and cream for about another minute or two.

You are done. I added some rice as the other side dish (which I did in our cooker).

Shrimp Risotto - Thank you Cooks Country

2011-01-16T00:11:00.001-08:00

Thanks again to Cook's Country Magazine for the nice Shrimp Risotto recipe. My step son saw the picture when I was browsing the issue and said he wanted to try it. The recipe said 20 minutes cook time and delivered on that promise:

1 start your shrimp marinating in garlic, red pepper flake and olive oil

2 nuke your rice, chicken broth and butter for about 15 minutes (at least in our microwave oven)

3 when the rice is almost done you can fry up the shrimp (and put it to the side)

4 throw the finished rice into the same pan you just used for the shrimp

5 stir until the excess liquid disappears (just a minute or two)

yum. I didn't bother with arborio -- I just used shirakiku short grain rice. There were no left overs.

This baby will become a standard part of my repertoire.

Unconventional Wisdom - An FP Special Report | Foreign Policy

2011-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is a mostly depressing article about the realities of the world. But still you ought to read it.

Mystical Tuna Salad Secrets Divulged

2011-01-08T21:41:00.001-08:00

Cooks Country magazine for August/September of 10 had an article entitled "Best Tuna Salad". And I thought I made a pretty good tuna salad to begin with so I was curious. Reading the article and looking at the nice big picture I am able to condense the secret down to the Following: Take your onion for the salad (which you have already finely diced of course) now put it in a little microwave safe bowl with a glug of olive oil then nuke it for anywhere from a minute to two minutes watching it if you aren't sure how puissant your nuker is until the onions are just soft/translucent) . Thats it. And it does make the tuna just slightly tastier and its easy add this little step to your tuna prep.

For added bonus I will throw in my own secret of better tuna salad - cumin. A roommate of mine turned me on to this one. It only takes a little bit - a pinch - as they say, but it adds just a little smokey undertone to the flavor that I like

So that recipe is (as I make it):

two cans of tuna
half of an onion

two stalks of celery

two hard boiled eggs

sweet pickle relish

mayonaise

olive oil

cumin

salt

white pepper

Of course we start by boiling the eggs. I start the eggs in cold water and I use medium to low flame and just let it heat up gently. The water never really boils and I give it about 10 minutes. My mom says that this gentle cooking helps keep the shells easy to peel off (and it works for me - I hate hard to peel boiled eggs).

Chop up the onion and celery finely. Now put the onion in a small bowl with a couple teaspoons of olive oil an start the nuker. While the nuker is nuking, open the tuna cans and drain water the heck out of it -- I do this by just pressing in the lid of the tuna can after I open it.

The rest of this recipe is just mixing (really smushing and mashing) everything together with mayonaise until it looks and tastes like tuna fish salad. There is probably a cup of mayo in the final product. Adding salt, pepper and cumin to taste (what this means is you need to taste it probably at least twice to get it where you want it.)

This is just barely cooking

To paint a picture

2010-12-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

... of what I don't know. Anyway, I am sitting on on the couch quietly hacking at 6:00 am, the rain is beating gently on the aluminum roof and mom has been up in the kitchen for probably 30 minutes puttering around. I am pretty sure she doesn't know I am awake (and have been since 5:00). Its dark and quiet has a I type and stare in to the glow of the powerbook. And then I hear ... the theme of an old television show come down the hall....da da-ti-daa da-dum da-ta-da.. da da-ti-daa da-dUUm ta-ti-dee... its the theme from Quincy ME.... which I have to admit I liked to watch at whatever age....13?

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Money can't buy happiness but neither can poverty. - Leo Rosten

How To Clean Tough Burnt Stains Off Stainless Cookware Home Hacks | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn

2010-12-25T21:15:00.000-08:00

How To Clean Tough Burnt Stains Off Stainless Cookware Home Hacks | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn

File this under: Home Economics

Harry Shearer • Le Show • DEC 05 2010

2010-12-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

Harry Shearer • Le Show • DEC 05 2010

Yves Smith if you want her. Wow this is non-comedic and non-ranting Harry Shearer talking about the possible mortgage foreclosure crisis.

File this under "News You can Use"

2010-12-23T13:58:00.000-08:00

How Not to Wreck a Nonstick Pan - NYTimes.com

Re: Reading Charlotte's Web

2010-12-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

"Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.

Lately we have been reading Charlotte's Web for bedtime story. I knew it was a good book and that I had enjoyed it as a kid and that it was about a spider and a pig and that there was writing in the web of the spider. But that was about it. Now we are good and into the book andI think we just read my favorite chapter so far. This is the chapter where Mrs Arable goes to see Dr Dorian because she is worried about her daughter Fern who she believes may be delusional.
I just love this book and how surreal and subversive it manages to be and at the same time how innocent.
Charlotte is just totally unapologetic about the fact that she as lives on other insects. Her only real nicety about this is that she tries to make it quick and painless for her food. She is also utterly articulate and without question a natural leader of all the other animals in the barn. And that Charlotte somehow knows about the arcane skills of various species of spiders (her cousins) is also taken for granted.
And of course, that wonder quote about human's gullibility. And none of this is explained or treated in any as being out of the ordinary even as she expresses this opinion to Fern (apparently an honorary animal). All of the animals can talk and that Fern can understand them is utterly unremarkable.
Never mind that Charlotte is capable of writing in her web even if she needs the help of Templeton the rat in order to find the words she uses.
Anyway the chapter on Dr Dorian is climaxed by his reaction to the miracle of the writing in the web which is that he wonders why nobody finds it miraculous that spider webs exist at all.

And like always these paragraphs are muddled mess as are my thoughts. But just thinking about it makes me smile.

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Money can't buy happiness but neither can poverty. - Leo Rosten

An Enterprising Man - Joe Frank: Return Engagement on KCRW

2010-12-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

This is Joe at his best. I went poking around looking for his stuff after Ira Glass mentioned him during the Marc Maron interview. (Hows that for name dropping?)

Eating on $31 a week from the Chicago Tribune

2010-10-06T12:21:00.001-07:00

Day 7

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2
Day 1

Chicken and Biscuits for Sunday Dinner

2010-03-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Big fun making fried chicken and biscuits last night. Total victory! Had to take picture of it.
The recipes:
Thanks Guardian and Random British KFC Lovers, I used buttermilk instead of milk and I fried in a dutch oven instead of a fryer - just don't have room in my kitchen for a fryer. And thanks also to Christopher K and and the gang for the awesome biscuit recipe. The trick of putting melted butter into the buttermilk worked like a charm.
Won't be doing the chicken too frequently since it dirties up the kitchen and is a fair amount of work. But the biscuits are not that much more work and are a massive improvement on sucky from-a-can biscuits.

Well thank you Wike West

2010-03-05T23:58:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a nice set of suggestions for how to structure my CSS and found this really helpful article.

Another Mac Productivity Boost

2010-03-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

Qucksilver is the hot, handy keyboard productivity tool I use constantly. I wanted to use it in order to set myself quicky reminder alarms. I found a video of this in YouTube (via LifeHacker) but it glosses over one critical detail which is explained here, basically, the in order to get "Run At Time" to pop for the command predicate you have to hit <Ctrl>+<Enter> as opposed to <Enter>. So that's it: with this trick you can get a reminder to pop at a specific time and your hands never have to leave the keyboard. Nifty!

Really Nice Food Porn

2010-03-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

Available here. I found the site while looking for what to do with avocados and salmon. Laylita is cranking out some really nice looking food with nice descriptive recipes. Will be trying some of these recipes.

Heard About Augmented Reality on the Naked Scientist

2010-03-02T00:36:00.000-08:00

...And here is an interesting (multiple sclerosis/nerd) link.

Dinner Tonight

2010-03-02T00:05:00.001-08:00

This meal really came out nicely and quickly. I should have taken pictures. Discovered that Kiku doesn't like avocado though (who doesn't like avocado!! -- Kiku apparently) and I was forced to eat the perfectly ripe avocado slices by myself. (Also no I really don't need a white rice recipe - we use a really nice rice cooker)

New Snack Discovery

2010-03-01T11:44:00.001-08:00

Handy easy snack = Barbequed Pop-Chip + Smear of Almond Butter
Somehow the salty tangy barbequed goodness complements the smooth sweet blandness of the almond butter. (I am using Maranatha brand here)

Helpful Craigslist Tip

2010-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

So you are interested in some item that you would like to get but its no hurry and you would like to save some money. Easy answer: search for it on Craig's List. And you do this and don't get any hits you can use. Now here's the tricky bit: take a look at the bottom right of your search results and you should see the beloved RSS symbol:

Now right click on it and select "Copy Link Address" (or your browsers equivalent - am using Chrome). Now go to your RSS reader app (and yes, I use Google reader for this) and add a subscription by pasting the url you just copied.

Poof! Now your reader will alert you whenever your search on Craigslist shows any new potential hits.

Dear Google,

2010-02-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

Please allow us to tag our google docs just like we can our mail. Seriously.
I am truly surprised that this is not a capability that would already be there.

Just saw this... late to the party

2010-02-23T22:12:00.001-08:00

XKCD LOL

WhereAreTheCures.org

2010-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

This is the note I sent to my friends and now you anonymous blog readers (all 2 of you) can have a taste.
Hello,

If you have the time (like 5 minutes) could I get you sign the petition here? This simple act will help raise awareness that current medical research system is not producing therapies for chronic and deadly diseases in a reasonably efficient way. More specifically, in spite of all our advances in technology and money spent, new drugs are only developed at the same rate they were 50 years ago! The MRF foundation is trying to change this situation and the time you take to sign their petition (and reply to an email) will really help.

Thanks for reading from Your Friendly Neighborhood Chronic Disease Sufferer,

Charles

4-AP and Ampyra and money and WTF?

2010-02-22T08:39:00.001-08:00

So I have a prescription for "generic" 4-AP. And of course, I have to go to a compounding pharmacy to get it. And here in the bay area, at least, its $50 for about 30 capsules. My insurance does not cover it because it is not FDA-approved. How is this generic? The only thing more expensive in my arsenal of meds is my Copaxone.
And now we have Ampyra which is waaaay more expensive. So apparently we have skipped directly from a "cheap" generic drug directly to an an expensive enhanced version without ever being able to get a this "cheap" generic drug covered by insurance?
Can I get a WTF here?

Things I Need

2010-02-21T22:48:00.001-08:00

Having visited Miss Vickies website, I need a pressure cooker. (which will let me make Navy Bean Soup in a jiffy)

Cheapass Coffee!!!

2010-02-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

9 bucks for 40oz whole bean coffee at Cost Plus. Couldn't pass that up. Will try it tomorrow and report back.
(Reporting back: yes I can deal with this coffee. Its a nice dark roast. I have no idea what its provenance is.)

From Fish to Infinity

2010-02-16T09:30:00.001-08:00

I know a four-year-old who I think really needs to see this:

From Fish to Infinity

Thanks NYT!!! And please don't ever delete that Sesame Street clip.

Crazy idea

2010-02-10T05:52:00.001-08:00

Why not pay executives in financial institutions of a certain size in a way that encourages long term thinking? Is there a way we can make this sort of policy reasonably unavoidable for the folks who would have it apply to them?
Probably insane middle-of-the-night thinking...

Next Wings Recipe I Will Try To Make...

2010-02-07T21:34:00.001-08:00

I found here.

Made some hot wings for the super bowl today

2010-02-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Cyndi Allison of "Yes You Can Cook",
In reference to your recipe I found here.
Thanks for those directions. They are now immortalized in my gmail account. In particular your hints about chilling the wings in the flour bag and also leaving the little fried bits to mix in the sauce were very helpful. That and I like the fact that your recipe didn't require elaborate equipment or special fancy ingredients. I really enjoyed the results. I didn't soak the wings in the sauce for very long though. I like having the skin a little crunchy under its saucy coating.

Great minds think alike

2010-02-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

I just saw this:
http://www.i-inject.com/

which seems to have very similar motivation to

http://subq-online.org/

...but a very different business model.

Nice Buttons!

2010-02-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.zurb.com/blog_uploads/0000/0617/buttons-03.html
I am stealing now.

Does anybody use the Dashboard Widgets feature in Mac OS?

2010-02-06T12:10:00.001-08:00

Really, seriously does anybody use the Dashboard Widgets? The F12 hotkey just annoys me and I just have never adjusted to using it. The functionality that seemed useful was the ability to turn a website into an "applcation", but it never seemed to work nicely for the websites I wanted to use: remember the milk and gmail and google calendar. They all seemed to not use the space correctly or fail to login or have some other shortcoming. I recently discovered fluid (http://fluidapp.com/) and that seems to be the bomb for exactly what I want to do. On windows you can use the save as app feature of Chrome to do the same thing and it would be nice if this feature existed on the mac. But until then Fluid works just fine....

Make-ahead Egg Sandwiches

2010-02-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Kiku's parents introduced us to these make-ahead egg sandwiches. We make a batch and stick'em in the freezer. They make it easy to feed the kid (and us) when we are in a hurry to leave the house on a work day.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground sauaage (no casings)
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1 package Bridgeford Frozen Bread Loaves

1/4 cup butter (half of a stick)

Directions:

Thaw your bread for an hour before starting.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the sausage. Now mix in the cheese and the eggs.

Drain the remaining grease.

Roll the thawed loaves out.

Divide the sausage mixture into three parts.

Distribute the sausage mixture down the center of leach rolled loaf.

Pinch each loaf closed and roll it so the pinched side is down.

Brush the top of each loaf with melted butter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes

Cool and slice.

2010-02-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

A little webapp I created for myself: http://subq-online.org

A Menu

2010-01-25T20:53:00.000-08:00

This meal takes about an hour and a half to complete.

Chicken Adobo

Rice

Green Salad with Spicy Asian Dressing

Some Green Vegetable: Asparagus, Brocolli BokChoy ... something

Shopping or Pantry:

Rice

White Vinegar

Soy Sauce

A Whole Chicken Or a 3 pound package of Chicken Thighs

Sesame Oil

Chile Oil

Rice Wine Vinegar

a jar of crushed Ginger

a jar of crushed Garlic

Bay Leaves

Black Pepper Corns

Salad Greens

your green vegetable -- I used asparagus since it was on sale.

1 Throw the rice in your rice cooker and start it. We have a Tiger fuzzy logic maker that takes a good 45 minutes to done.

2 In a Dutch oven, or good sized pot add your chicken, your vinegar, soy, garlic, a handful of peppercorns and a bay leaf. You are using about a 5 to 3 to 3 ratio of soy to vinegar water (So its about a cup of soy and 3/5 cups each of vinegar and water. You want enough liquid to just about cover the chicken. Simmer over medium to low heat for 20 minutes.

3 Drain off the cooking liquid and save it The easiest way to do this is use a pot with a lid. Grab the pot with oven mitts and then drain off the liquid into a big bowl that is sitting in your sink. You just need to put the lid on the pot leaving a little gap for the liquid to escape.

4 Return the pot to the stove and add a couple tablespoons of cooking oil. Turn the burner high and brown the chicken. This will probably only take 10 minutes.

5 Turn off the fire and let the chicken cool for 15 minutes. This is necessary for the next step which is:

6 Add back in the cooking liquid. By cooling the pan previously it prevents the soy from scorching (which will not be tasty)

7 Boil this stuff for 45 to 50 minutes and its food.

Now with 20 minutes left to finish the chicken you can do the veg

First turn on your oven to 500 degrees for the asparagus.

The dressing for the salad is

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

3 tablespoons of sesame oil

3 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1 or 2 tablespoons of chili oil (depending on how spicy you want it)

2 tablespoons of crushed ginger

2 teaspoons of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of white or brown sugar

a pinch of garlic powder

Mix all that stuff in a bowl. Dump it over the salad greens or serve the salad green dry and put the dressing on the table.

Prep the asparagus by breaking off the stems about an inch from the bottom. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and put the asparagus on it Pour over a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle on a bunch of salt.

At this point the oven is probably ready so pop that asparagus in and cook it for 10-12 minutes.

If your timing has worked everything should be done now.

2009-06-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Best Ideas I ever had today:
Edible Candy "Soap" Bubbles
Which idea came to me watching my three-year-old stepson run around me furiously trying to bite the bubbles I was blowing just as fast as I could. This would be a license to print money and it would make the world at least 1% better.

My First Childrens Novel : Sydney the Selfish Shellfish
Sydney, a lonely selfish hermit crab meets Celia a depressed coelacanth and learns to share his under sea toys with her.

My New Children's Hit Record:
One line of which is "Where oh where did the eskimo go"

Need a good place for your passwords?...

2008-09-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

Need a good place for your passwords? Want them available online? Want a warm fuzzy feeling that they are safe?
Check this out.

Hugo Nominated and Winning stories as podcasts

2008-08-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hugo-nominated (and winning) stories from this year as podcasts - available here or here.

Also I have it on good report that Snow Crash is available on audible.com

A Time Machine Enhancment

2008-01-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

I love having time machine on my new mac. It really makes keeping current backups completely fuss-less. But as in any version 1 product there are some enhancements that would be nice.
For example: I would love the ability to tag a backup state. This came up when a really flakey piece of software I was playing with kept getting corrupted and I would need to re-install. If I could have marked a particular backup as having "XYZ installed clean" it would just be nifty.

Pork Chile Verde = Tasty + Easy + Low Carbs

2007-11-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't quite call this cooking... but its the results that count.
1. Head to T.J.s and pick up a package of Trader Jose's Traditional Carnitas.
2. At the supermarket pick up a jar of Herdez Salsa Verde.
3. Take a sauce pan and simmer a chunk of the carnitas in just enough salsa to make a thick stew. I am sure you can figure it out but start with a little less than you might think since it will thin out when heating. Heating it up takes like 3 minutes if you put a lid on the pan.
4.a Eat with a low carb tortilla.
4.b (Breakfast variant:) Once the mixture is hot, break an egg gently on the surface so the yolk doesn't break. Put the lid on the pan and give it a minute or two for the egg to poach.
The total carbs for this is about 5-ish. Very low glycemic index

Atkins, yes, Atkins

2007-11-20T18:14:00.000-08:00

I am on day 12 of induction. Doing pretty well with only one real bout of carbohydrate lust. I weigh myself this coming monday (using a digital scale at the doctor's office). But so far down from 173 to 167.5. Hoping to get to 160.
But I digress. Here is a recorded interview with Gary Bauer whose book pretty much convinced me that Atkins was the thing to try. I highly recommend his book. Your mileage may vary.

2007-08-22T23:50:00.001-07:00

Here is a podcast about an hour long of an interview with Dr. Evangelos Michelakis. Dr. Michelakis is probably going to win a Nobel prize for literally finding a cure for cancer. For those of you disinclined to listen to an hour of anything without a damn good reason, here is a shorter newspaper synopsis of his work which may leave you more inclined. The interview is interesting because the doctor lays out his discoveries in some detail but still manages to keep it fairly accessible to a non-cell-biologist.

Bruce Sterling in WiReD

2007-07-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

I typically pickup a copy of Wired every month, but I only actually read an article in it about once every two or three months. But, as a general rule, anything by Bruce Sterling stuff will get read. Thusly, this article on hyper-locality, from Bruce, keeps my Wired articles read batting average going this month.

Hot and Not Hot

2007-07-04T07:37:00.001-07:00

Things that are not hot:
Why is it that when I create a google gadget for chowhound, lets say, that it is created as a dead google gadget? It never updates. That is annoying.
Things that are hot:
The Last Waltz, every time I catch this on TV I am just transfixed. The Band was on its game and the guests were legendary: Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Neil *freakin* Young, et al. And its all tricked out in 70's style.

Interesting read

2007-07-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a piece by Freeman Dyson talking about Our Biotech Future. This is the first time I have heard of pre-darwinian evolution. And we are moving into the post-darwinian evolutionary period if you buy into to the article. These are some pretty intriguing notions. Not much more to say about it other than I need to digest on this.

Pear-ine?

2007-07-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

So this past sunday at the farmer's market somebody was selling something called a "pear-ine" (or "per-ine"?) Allegedly a pear-nectarine hybrid, about the size of a tangerine or a smallish nectarine with a red/orange mottled skin. Very very sweet, with a very soft and bruisable flesh. In short, mighty tasty, but of questionable provenance.
I went a-google-ing for a pear nectarine hybrid or for a pear-ine but found nothing at all. So is this some new franken-fruit from our genetic palette? Anybody heard of this allegedly new fruit?

Nigella Cooks/Feasts

2007-07-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

Nigella Lawson hosts my second favorite show (after Alton Brown) on the food Network. The main reason I like this show, I have to admit, is because Nigella is a MILF, a straight up MILF. She has porcelain skin, and a body straight out of a Rubin painting. She manages to be both gorgeous and yet also look like she eats the highly caloric dishes that she shows you how to make in her show.
I would contrast her to Giada, where although Giada is cute with a nice perky rack, she is too skinny to look like she really eats the food she makes. Melanie calls her a lollipop-head because she is a stick with a big round head and a huge smile.
The other reason I like Nigella's show is that she showed me how to eat a soft-boiled egg. Her technique: You make the egg (4 minutes to have a nice soft egg) You make toast. You butter the toast (unsalted butter!). You cut the toast into quarter-inch strips. You put your egg into an egg cup, take the top off the egg and sprinkle some salt on the newly naked top of the egg. Now use your toast strips as utensils to dig around in and extract the liquid egg yoke. And, of course, you eat the yoke-coated toast strips! Possibly you bother to eat the remaining egg white at some point down the line.
Nigella's show is pretty dern Anglophilic and it ought to be since I think the Food Network just basically lifted it off of UK TV. She often shows really complicated English-style puddings but she also shows really simple things like, fer instance the aforementioned soft-boiled eggs or sweet bread and warm milk. Her dishes often times use spices we Americans tend not to such as using allspice to make a shepherd's pie casserole. And yes her recipes tend to use dairy products, butter and cream, with nearly the same joyful abandon as Paula.
Looking at amazon.co.uk you can find a whole line of Nigella-ware. She is apparently the Martha Stewart and/or Rachael Ray of England.

Scharffen Berger Extra Rich Milk Chocolate

2007-07-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Every Easter when I got my basket there was a chocolate bunny in it and that bunny came from Sees. That was the best chocolate I tasted all year and I would keep it in my room so as to dismember it over the a period of a week because the chocolate was so good and so rich; too rich to eat in one or two sittings and way too good to share. (Each kid got his/her own bunny) It was so much better than any chocolate bar I would get at my local liquor store. Eventually, when I was twelve or so, I learned to dip that chocolate in peanut butter for a little change of pace, but either plain or with PB it was still so good and the flavor would linger on the tongue and the tongue would get lonely for it as my saliva would slowly dissolve the traces of chocolate.
Well now Scharffen Berger has an Extra Rich Milk Chocolate bar and it is the second coming of the easter bunny for my adult heathen tastes.

TED Talks

2007-07-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

Highly recommended in general although the published talks include quite a grab bag of content: including some where the "presentation" is actually sung and some presentations that are less than five minutes long. In any case here are a couple that I enjoyed to a higher than average degree.

Thomas Barnett talking about what the US military ought to look like to really solve some problems.
E.O. Wilson talking about biodiversity and our scary impact on it.