Forever Stamp (Reblog)

The Postal Regulatory Commission, while pushing for breaking the 40¢ stamp barrier, is also recommending a stamp with no denomination. It would be sold for whatever the current domestic rate was, so you could stock up on lots of stamps and then sell them back for a profit after the next rate hike! Actually, I really love that idea. We've had stamps with no numerical denomination made before, but not with a tracking rather than fixed value.

To To Ro To To Ro (Chow)

CRB is in Matsuyama for a few weeks, and today taunts us with a glorious Totoro-pan.

We can't wait for EJB to decide to take everyone to Japan for canoing this year (hint hint)...

Yard Metempsychosis

The SE corner of our yard. Progress is from 2005-11 to 2006-04, 2006-07, and finally 2006-08.
Our nascent vegetable garden, with the SE corner in the background. Progress is from 2005-11 to 2006-06. We're really happy with the flagstone path (which wraps all the way around to the front of the house), but it is going to take for ever to get it fully mossed and ground-covered.
The east stretch of our yard, viewed along the back of the house. Progress is from 2006-03 to 2006-09. We really miss Maya.
Finally, our original 2005-11 porch and our current porch as of 2006-08. The original porch started falling apart at approximately the moment we bought our house; after the original contractor rebuilt it and watched it fall apart again a month later, we decided to do something else.

The wife gets to take most of the credit for this transformation. I moved heavy objects and whined about how expensive plants are.

Personal Publishing (Reblog)

So, instead of writing today, I've been poking around at what to do with what I may or may not write. This is mainly to frustrate EJB, although I think the wife is getting ready to take a bat to my head as well.

My most intriguing find is the fascinating Lulu, an alternative to a traditional publisher or an evil vanity publisher. They are an on-demand publisher that takes a markup on whatever creative cost you choose to apply to your work and on the actual cost of publishing. Their printing costs aren't unreasonable at all, and their up-front costs for authors are nothing.

Of course, just using the web with one of the brand new 3.0 Creative Commons licenses is even more straightforward -- not that the two methods are mutually exclusive.

Kitchenarium (Chow)

I'm noodling together a recipe site since I'm unhappy with the formatting of the recipes I've stuck on this blog. I'll probably be sticking a couple of recipes up on it each week.

Firefox Cursor Artifact Intentional (Reblog)

Have other Firefox users noticed, and been confounded and annoyed by, the ` that shows up next to the cursor for certain text fields?

Apparently, this is a directional indicator for web pages that display mixed text, some of which reads left-to-right and some of which reads right-to-left. So, since there is right-to-left text displayed on the main Wikipedia page linked above, that right-facing accent mark appears to show you that the text field is for a left-to-right IME.

As far as I know, there is no way to disable it.

Obedience, Take Two (Pets)

We just got back from the first session of our second class with 'Dolon, a distraction class. Unlike our previous PetSmart (warning: links to known mistruths) class, this one has an instructor who I now respect. He's convinced us to get a pinch collar to help with our training. 'Dolon was totally freaked out by a loaned pinch collar tonight, but it made a world of difference in his attentiveness. This will be a major shift in our training ethos, which up until now has been almost exclusively positive reinforcement.

These pictures aren't from the class, although I think we'll take a camera next time. At the top is 'Dolon takin orders (well, actually, mostly taking food) from Will. One day we'll replace food with actual obedience. The other pictures are just 'Dolon sitting in my lap on our couch.

Hunan #2 (Chow)

Attempt the second. I got a significant amount of the Hunan bean flavor I'm looking for, and I think the sweet/sour balance was proper. It was still good -- can a stir-fry with zucchini in it ever be bad? -- and the wife gave it higher marks than the first attempt. Still, a ways to go...

• The hot/sour balance still failed the heat.
• The depth was better, but I'm going to need to resort to further tricks to achieve what I want without meat.
• I'm missing some critical flavoring I haven't hit upon yet.
  

Here's the bullet.

1. Gently fry in a large wok:
   • Toasted sesame oil: 1T.
   • Dried hot peppers: 6. I increased the dosage to address the hot/sour balance.
   • Ginger: 1T, grated.
   • Garlic: 4 cloves, grated.
   • Salted black beans: 2T, after reconstituting with boiling water.
   
2. Add items that need extra cooking:
   • Roasted peanuts: ¼c, frying for about 5 minutes.
   • Carrots: 1, peeled, sliced in ¼" rounds. Because I made the carrots so thick I also cooked these before adding the sauce for a few minutes.
     
3. Turn this into a sauce by adding:
   • Sake: 2T. I used a Sake Gekkeikan that we opened last night with sushi but that wasn't much to my liking; my previous attempt I squandered some Sakagura-shochu.
   • Soy sauce: ¼c.
   • Rice wine vinegar: 2T. I increased the dosage to address the sweet/sour balance.
   • Brown sugar: 2T.
   • Pepper, freshly ground: ½t.
4. Add your vegetables and cook them until they are done. I used:
   • Water chestnuts: ¼c, sliced.
   • Bamboo shoots: ¼c, sliced.
   • Red bell pepper: 1, diced.
     
   • Zucchini: 2 medium, unpeeled, sliced in ½cm rounds.
   • Bean sprouts: ¼c.
5. Serve over rice.