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.
   

Crossblogging

If any of you, my perhaps two friends who read this blog, both have your own blogs and don't mind a link, let me know. I was thinking of popping a "friends" panel up on the right side with my shared feeds and other junk.

In fact, I'm kind of curious if anybody I bugged with my initial announcement of this blog still reads it. Have I lost my base? Are my advertisers going to stop paying me? Do I need to skew more crazy-leftist? Are there not enough pointless pictures of pets?

Distilled Pulp Fiction (NSFW)

This is the (NSFW) "fucking short version" of Pulp Fiction. I'm impressed by how long it is, and how much of the plot is conveyed even when almost everything not containing a variant of fuck is clipped out. I wonder which mainstream film would produce the longest FSV?

Google + Regexp = Searching Nirvana (Reblog)

Thanks to the fine folks at Daily Cup of Tech, today I learned that Google accepts regular expressions in its searches! Now I almost have a use for everything I've learned from Mastering Regular Expressions (which I regard as the best book currently available on the subject)... While Google Code Search lets you use full POSIX regexp, I'm still not sure how to fully exploit it from the standard search dialog.

Please Feed The Chuck Norris

CMD, you need to feedify your Walker, Texas Ranger journal.

Topologibags (Reblog)

Josh Jakus likes to make interesting things out of reclaimed industrial felt. I'm not sure how ergonomic these UM bag of his are in practice, but they sure look neat. Look at the video of opening and closing them.

RIAA Hires Thieves To Rob Itself (Reblog)

There is an abnormally unflattering article in the mainstream press about some of the RIAA's mafia tactics. The bullet: the RIAA hired some hip-hop artists to make remixes of other artists' music and then got SWAT, weapons drawn, to bust them. They have to employ both the stingers and the stingees to create the illusion of a crime.

Our Pre-made Dinner (Chow)

Last night we made this incredibly pre-manufactured taco salad which is, I think, as close to pre-made was we get in this household.

• Tortilla chips. I build an architectural bowl out of them as the base; the wife makes me do this each time so I don't whine about the stability of our dinner in an earthquake.
  
• Lettuce: ~2c, chopped. We use one head of Romaine; you could use the popular but tasteless iceberg if you want, but an entire iceberg head would be way too much.
  
• Cheddar cheese: ½c, shredded.
• Chili hot beans: ½ can. Other than salsa and various Asian and hot sauces, I think this is the only prepared canned or jarred good we regularly keep in our pantry.
• Avocado: 1, diced. As always, this should be nice and ripe. Mmm. The avocado is the key to really elevating this dish.
  
• Sour cream. We use light, as in this application there is no significant taste difference.
• Catalina dressing. Light as well. Together with the beans this gives the dish an important tanginess to contrast with the lettuce, cheese, and avocado.
  

Hunan #1 (Chow)

Attempt the first at an ultimate Hunan dish was a (yummy) failure.

• The hot/sour balance tilted too far to the sour.
• The sweet/sour balance tilted too far to the sweet.
• It lacked the profound depth I want -- something that will be difficult to achieve without meat.
• The distinct Hunan fermented bean flavor was significantly lacking. I used a prepared Thai hot bean paste (which I know I'll take flack for after my prior rant :-) made from glutinous rice, hot pepper powder, corn syrup, soybean, salt, and water. Next time I have some salted black beans I'll try instead in my own preparation.
  

Still, it was very tasty, and the wife and I polished off the dish in short order with rice and some steamed bean-paste buns.

1. Gently fry in a large wok:
• Toasted sesame oil: 1T.
  
• Dried hot peppers: 4.
• Ginger: 1T, grated. I use a microplane grater for preparing fresh ginger, as well as garlic, nutmeg, and many other suitable spices.
• Garlic: 4 cloves, grated. Obviously you could mince this instead if your knife skills are better than mine. I like the microplane.
• Prepared hot bean paste: 1T.
  
2. Add ¼c roasted peanuts and fry them for about 5 minutes.
3. Turn this into a sauce by adding:
   • Sake: 2T.
   • Soy sauce: ¼c.
   • Rice wine vinegar: 1T.
   • Brown sugar: 2T.
   • Pepper, freshly ground: ½t.
4. Add your vegetables and cook them until they are done. I sometimes add ingredients which cook differently separately, then remove and reserve them untilt he dish is ready for final assembly. This time I just added the carrots and water chestnuts first, followed by the bamboo, then zucchini, and finally the bean sprouts which cook almost instantly. Total vegetable cooking time was no more than 10 minutes. I used:
   • Carrots: 2, peeled, diagonally sliced.
   • Water chestnuts: ¼c, sliced.
   • Bamboo shoots: ¼c, sliced.
   • Zucchini: 2 medium, unpeeled, sliced in ½cm rounds.
   • Bean sprouts: ¼c.
5. Serve over rice.
   

I should have taken pictures so this post was actually interesting... When will I learn!

Sayonara Chief

It is official! Just heard on NPR -- this next week will see the last appearance of Chief Illiniwek. Maybe now all of the various pro- and con- resources that have been dedicated to this moronic debate can be refocused on something worthwhile.

Pre-made Recipes (Chow)

In the distant past, there was a restaurant in UIUC's campustown called Hunan King, located above the quite good but only sporadically open Seoul on East Green. Hunan King was a sleazy Chinese joint catering to sleazy college vermin like myself. You had to be prepared to ignore the occasional wandering cockroach to eat there. But...

They made dishes with a spicy Hunan brown sauce that was the foundation of three or four of my favorite Chinese dishes ever. I love Szechuan food too (and since 2005 it is now possible to get actual Szechuan pepper again after a 37 year embargo), but the complex richness of a deep Hunan sauce... Mmm!

I'm tired of pining away for my lost Hunan sauce, so I'm going to start fiddling around with making my own. As a starting point I've been browsing the web, and slowly becoming more and more filled with outrage. Even when you are trying to explore a niche recipe area like Hunan cuisine, the vast majority of recipe information you can dig up on line calls for opening jars of prepared spicy bean paste, or "brown Chinese sauce". Here's a great recipe for a black bean stir fry -- take some meat and vegetables and cook it in "7 oz. black bean sauce". What is wrong with people?

I understand the convenience of opening up some jar of crap and pouring it into a pot to make dinner. But sifting through recipe site after recipe site, there is a huge preponderance of these type of pre-made recipes. So not everyone wants to make their own berbere, that's fine -- but the pendulum seems to have swung awfully far towards the Ragú (brought to you by Unilever, dehumanizer of women) end of the spectrum.

Making your own food from scratch doesn't have to be very time-consuming or inconvenient. Despite how NDM cooks, you don't have to use 8 or more cubic feet of dishware and utensils and an entire afternoon to prepare appetizing meals out of raw ingredients. Why do so many Americans regard cooking with such horror?

Animals Are Cute (Reblog)

I just wanted an excuse to use the picture from this article. (Careful of the popups!)

Dueling SF Authors (Reblog)

These several posts make me want to quickly write some dystopic fantasy so I can start arguing in the authors' circle-jerk. Not all of them are very rigorous thinkers on their blogs (ha, like I am), but I do enjoy their books. I'll have to check out Jeff VanderMeer some more; I read his Veniss Underground and was not terribly impressed, but now I'll give him a second look.

Truth In Advertising

An oldie but goody, with the hilarious Colon Mochrie no less. Definitely not suitable for work due to language, language, and more language.

Kansas Evolving (Reblog)

Although news like this defeat of "intelligent design" in the Kansas classroom might be considered heartening, it is worth remembering that the vote was 6-4. Scientists need to stop slavishly clinging to proper terminology and throw the word theory out the window for discussions in popular media. In fact, evolution is really more akin to a law than a theory (natural selection would be the pertinent genuine theory, although even that is less and less true) in any case. Scientists will play politics for tenure and grant money, but not for the truth...

Useless Paper Trails (Reblog)

OK, we all know that I'm Mr. Sensitivity in general. But this is just ridiculous. Why would anybody waste any emotional energy at all on what government-issued piece of paper you get in return for your dead baby? I know that in some circles this is a nice sneaky wedge issue to help further erode a woman's right to choose... I also know that there are at least some people who derive some comfort from the piece of paper -- just like there are some people who derive comfort from psychic hotlines. I just don't see this as an area where our government should be farting around at all.

What is our cultural obsession with public recognition of intensely private moments of grief?

Brrr (Reblog)

Although we've had a tiny bit of cold weather off and on this winter, it is important to keep things in perspective. The wife just called my attention to these impressive pictures taken after a January, 2005 ice storm in Versoix, a town near Geneva, Switzerland. Very strong winds gusting over Lac Léman helped set the stage for these images.

Apparently, the photos have been making the acquaintance spam rounds for the past year, claiming to be from several different places; my précis above is the accurate description.

Blogging Sharing Blogging

Google recently enhanced Blogger (which I use for this blog) to make it easy to slap my Google Reader shared items up on my blog. I've stuck it in green at the lower right. Now those of you who don't have my feed in your RSS client can easily verify that you aren't missing anything.

Seed Savers Exchange (Recommendation)

Speaking of seeds, you don't have to build a high-tech oubliette which will survive a nuclear winter (or global-warming summer) to help conserve them. There is always the Seed Savers Exchange for interested gardeners. People sitting on nascent gardens, as we are in our new house, can still order from their catalog. Those who spend half their time in their garden, EJB, might actually like to become a member.

The Seed Savers Exchange is targeted at plants you eat. There is also a related Flower and Herb Exchange.

Personal Hydrofoil (Reblog)

I hadn't realized that the mechanics of the hydrofoil scales down to the land of muscle power, but apparently it does. The video is from instructables, which is itself a pretty interesting site to explore.

The Fortress Of Seeditude (Reblog)

Coming soon to a North Pole near you: an impregnable seed vault which will allow our future starving, mutant children to restore crop biodiversity to our ravaged planet. Norway is going to begin construction of the vault next month on one of the Svalbard islands, and by 2008 the $5 million project should be airlocking away its first seed samples.

Irishish Stew (Chow)

Sometimes it is nice to be able to cook good something with a trivial amount of effort. We were visiting my parents this weekend, and while cooking for the primary meal we took a few minutes to throw something together for lunch the next day.

1. Sear your meat before stewing it for additional flavor and texture.
• Lightly brown some fresh minced garlic in about 3T oil.
• Add your trimmed and cubed lamb stew meat. You can also use beef (as we did this weekend) if lamb is hard to find, although I personally prefer the lamb. ½# if pseudo-vegetarians are going to be picking through the dish, up to 2#.
• Sear the meat, seasoning with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Finish with a splash of red wine.
  


2. Throw everything into a crock pot on its lowest setting. You don't even have to throw everything in at the same time, as long as there is enough liquid at any given stage and there's still a decent amount of stewing time left before you're going to eat.
• Seared stew meat: ½-2#.
• Carrots, in ¾" sections: 1c.
• Potatoes, in ¾-1" cubes: 2.
• Parsnip, in ½" cubes: 1c.
• Rutabaga, in ½" cubes: 1c.
  
• Barley: 1c.
• Crushed tomatoes: ½c.
• Beef broth: 1Q. You can use vegetable broth instead.
  
• Guiness: 12oz.
• Basil: 1½T.
• Bay leaves: 3.
  
• Oregano: 2t.
  
• Thyme: 1½T.
• Additional salt and pepper to taste.


3. This needs to be cooked for at least 12 to 18 hours in a slow cooker; we generally prepare it a full day in advance. Remember to check it every few hours (if you are awake) to make sure there is sufficient liquid; you can always add more Guiness! If you are in a hurry you could do this on a stovetop in maybe 6 hours.
   

Obviously, the root vegetables can be edited and rearranged in any fashion you like. Don't be afraid of the parsnip and rutabaga; with enough time to cook down they are quite nice and give additional interesting texture and flavor to the stew. I like very large pieces of the root vegetables so they don't start disintegrating into the stew due to the long cooking time.

Don't forget to bake fresh bread when you make this!

Zone Ch-ch-changes (Reblog)

Something for all of us who garden to keep in mind -- you might want to plan a zone or two in advance. Take a look at how U.S. hardiness zones have changed since 1990. Many of us Illinoisans have moved from 5 to 6, and we're probably going to keep on movin'.

Mmm... Chocolate (Reblog)

Get ready for V. day with some research NPR has done into the best chocolates.

Fish Cam (Reblog)

Perhaps this fish-cam is a potential pre-Quetico gift for EJB's fisherman-brother? It looks pretty cool, but not clear on U.S. availability. Something similar is available in the U.K. I can imagine his cries of outrage already...

If Hacking Is Outlawed Only Criminals Will Hack...Your Computer (Reblog)

Not sure how likely this is to stand, but the German Supreme Court today ruled that the German police could not secretely break into suspects' computers. This overturns a 2006 ruling in favor of hacking into computers.

These issues are forever being muddied on our side of the pond. We know where the RIAA stands on the issue, and basically our government can happily do whatever it wants. As always.

Just remember never to upgrade your current hardware firewall to a newfangled hardware-DRM'd model.

Art Decoesque Gherkin Sold (Reblog)

Swiss Re has sold their Gherkin, the most impressive skyline element of London which I have never seen. Ever since it was built in 2003 I've wanted to see this thing, which I find vaguely evocative of Gaudi's turn-of-the century hotel plans which were submitted for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. Lord, I was so excited to think we might actually build something worth looking at and being in... Alas, we're getting some Libeskind crapola -- a design cut from the same cloth as his anti-humanist Jüdisches Museum Berlin, perhaps the least utilitarian museum ever built.

Lying Cures All Ills (Reblog)

Apparently Republicans are running out of willing "scientist" shills, and are now offering direct bribes for lying about global climate change in the face of the new IPCC report. Honestly, the only thing that surprises me is the insultingly low dollar amount ($10,000), given the many millions that the AEI has rolling around for this kind of dirty-business-as-usual, thanks to its powerful and frequently evil donors.

No Wonder (Reblog)

Well, after the untimely demise of Firefly, I was really looking forward to Whedon's next project, a Wonder Woman film that he was going to write and direct. Alas, it is not to be. When not mired in angst (copious amount of BTVS) or concentrating more on serialization issues than tight episodic stories, I've really enjoy his television writing and directing.

Worldmapper (Recommendation)

Worldmapper was recalled to my mind today by a ScienceDaily item. It gives very visceral depictions of income disparity, prevalence of diseases, other many other topics.

I Want A Monotech Game Unit (Reblog)

Best video game trailer I've seen in a long time...

Walker, Texas Pundit (Reblog)

Last week Chuck Norris sat in for Sean Hannity as a co-host of Hannity & Colmes, which Wikipedia mistakenly describes as a "debate television program". While he clearly has at least as much political acumen as the regular co-hosts, I think his general intelligence and integrity might be overboard for the Fox "News" Channel's show. This is, after all, the man who repeatedly co-starred with Psychic Friends Network mouthpiece Dionne Warwick for most of a season of Walker, Texas Ranger!

Did you catch this, CMD?

Hair Donation

The wife wanted information on how to donate her hair, so I poked around a little. It looks like Locks of Love is a good place to donate. It isn't listed by the American Institute of Philanthropy, but some web-searching didn't turn up anything negative. Does NLC have any alternate places she favors?

The How Many Legislators Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb Act (Reblog)

EJB brought this to my attention. California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-LA) is planning on introducing a bill to ban incandescent lights in favor of compact fluorescents as an energy-saving measure. The number being thrown around is a 75% reduction in energy usage, which maps to the industry-standard tables of incandescent wattage (i.e. 60W) to compact fluorescent wattage (i.e. 15W).

While EJB might be sickened by fluorescent light, I don't have as much of a problem with the light from the compacts, which tends not to have human-noticeable cycling to make you nauseous. However, the printed equivalencies certainly don't make sense to me; a "150W equivalent" compact fluorescent is just beginning to get into the ballpark of my perceived brightness for a standard 100W incandescent bulb. Even so, there is still clearly a savings there, and in fact I'm using compact fluorescents for about a quarter of my household's bulbs right now.

Many people have complained about fluorescent light. Headache, eyestrain, fatigue, inability to concentrate, irritability (or as we know it, EJB syndrome), cutaneous light sensitivity... There is a discussion on fluorescent light at the James Randi Educational Foundation. In general, I think it all boils down to incomplete spectrum and flickering -- neither of which are significant issues with modern compact fluorescents.

EJB -- are your problems worse in Germany than with the CFLs we get in the States? You've never complained about my kitchen lighting, but your exposure could be too limited or you may just be too polite :-) Perhaps there is a different standard manufacturing process for CFL in Europe with more efficient but less stable ballasts.