I like stuff.

Monday, December 31, 2007

Quote of the Evening, New Year's Eve Edition.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to kick you in the head."

Update:
Later reiterated as "So I've kicked you in the head, defaced your home, frightened your cat, and you're still hanging out with me. This is a good sign."

A dash of the ludicrous

Credit for the link goes to Smoke Rings, Coffee Stains

I don't know what to say about this, but I laughed heartily. Maybe I shouldn't have.

Christmas Recap

For what's it's worth, this was one of the best holidays on record in recent years.

Yes, we continued on the new family tradition of Christmas burgers. (Oh, sure, it doesn't sound fancy now, but when you consider the older tradition you would understand our glee.)

But, no, the reason why this was such an awesome year was what The Girl gave me. It's a time machine of sorts.



I call it the Time Bag. Sure, it might not look so impressive to you now, but check this out. You can put things in it, and when you take them out, it's the future!

-transiit

(P.S. I'm kidding, of course, it's not really the future, it's just later. But I had to make the joke.)

(P.P.S. To The Girl: I'm not downplaying the thought and awesomeness of what you got me. But, you know, I had to make the joke.)

(P.P.P.S. The Girl actually built me my own TARDIS, amongst other gifts. Bet you didn't get a TARDIS.)

A Copyright Carol

Ok, so I'm not Canadian, and as best I can tell, many (not all) of you aren't either.

But as we are about to celebrate 10 years of lunacy that has been the DMCA in the US, Canada, well, they might be getting their own version, and all signs point to it not boding well.

So while I can still copy/paste such things, here's a parody of the concept I found linked off Boing Boing:

Consumerism: The Musical

I think this one stands on its own without extraneous commentary

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Quote of the evening:

"Well, there was the retarded grandmother..."

Travelling?

Poke around the Traveller Challenge

(for the record, I beat Ze Frank on the first try by a little over 2,000 points. Not bad for a guy that's never made it off-continent, yeah?

Vacation

As I usually do whenever I get some time off work, it's usually about or day or so before I revert to my official "drooling creature of the night" status. This often means that I end up staying up until about dawn watching movies as nearly everyone else that I know is somewhat better at sleeping like a normal person would.

So, to give you an idea, here is the visual consumption log of the past week or so, in no particular order:

Good Eats (1 episode)
Doctor Who (5 episodes)
Torchwood (1 Episode)
Escape From New York
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
The Simpsons Movie
Kentucky Fried Movie
Meatballs
The Borne Ultimatum
AI: Artificial Intelligence
Jackass 2.5
The Prestige

Well, that's all I can remember anyhow. I'm about to flip a coin between watching the Mummy Trilogy, The Riddick Trilogy (well, 2.5 doesn't have an -ology as far as I know), or The Devil's Rejects. Well, as soon as I find my three-sided coin, anyhow.

I'm not counting what I've read this week, as I've not finished anything, but once again I put the Baroque Cycle on hold (damn you, Stephenson!) and have been reading this instead.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Minigolf Deathmatch

Friday, December 28, 2007

ugh.

I'm not so politically astute to know what this all means, or to postulate much on where things might go, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll get worse before it gets better.

However, I think this tells the story better than the copy/paste off the AP feeds that so many news orgs are currently doing.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Stranger than fiction

Every once in a while, I stumble upon a bit stranger than usual

I'm not sure what it is about this one. The event? Sure, off-norm. But I think the real oddity lies somewhere between the matter-of-fact reporting and the ambiguity that suggests that OSHA already had the situation figured out.

-transiit

I am the arm.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Providence.

For those of you that might not know, my apartment complex has a resident skunk which I've named "Bob." I've written about it before elsewhere, but I'm not so sure about here.

Anyhow, I was out on the driveway smoking a cigarette a few scant moments ago when I had my nearest run-in with Bob to date. I think we were three or four feet apart when Bob noticed me standing there.

So whether it be in the holiday spirit, or Bob's naturally short attention span, Bob chose to high-tail it out of there rather than resort to the brand of chemical warfare his ilk are so infamous for.

Thanks, Bob.

-transiit

Monday, December 24, 2007

And to think I thought I'd have nothing to do...

So insert the appropriate holiday greeting here. I'm about to take off to go hang out with my grandmother and my brother, but I was surprised to meet this upon my doorstep on my first attempt at egress.

Looks like I'll have something to futz around with later after all.

Stay safe. Drive angry.

-transiit

Christmas Kazoo Carol Deathmatch 2007 - Post-mortem.

Ok, aside from most of the people that said "I'll try to make it" (many of which didn't), big fun was had by all. Witness the spectacle:

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Catching up...

Thursday, picked up the girl, went and had dinner at La Chiquita (also known as Joe's. Darn good hole-in-the-wall Mexican food, and just around the corner from her apartment.) She'd never been, and even having passed by it a number of times, it never registered. Other than a few issues of me having completely forgotten the protocols (it's been at least 5 years since I've been there, possibly closer to 10), the food still stood up (R.I.P., Joe) and good times were had. Did a drive-by of a party supply store to stock up on some more kazoos. Ended up also buying myself the Ben Franklin Instant Disguise Kit because I'm an idiot for that sort of thing. Chided the girl for encouraging me (or at least not stopping me) Went back to her apartment, helped her make a batch of christmas cookies (Cognac Sugarplums with Bourbon in place of the Cognac)

Friday, the slowest workday of the year. Figured I was already going to take some vacation days in early January anyhow, so I flipped a couple hours onto other days, and got out around 2:30. Drove home, changed clothes in anticipation of the evening's events, went to go pick up the girl for the Kazoo Deathmatch. Went to dinner (I forgot the name. I'm sure she'll give me crap later. I think it was the hollenshead, but my addled brain isn't certain right now.) I guess it's a deli. There's a slight convenience store vibe (maybe it was all the fluorescent lights), but either way, there were two quick observations. At a little after 5pm on a friday, they were packed, and the whole vibe was very friendly. After prompting from the proprietor, we ended up sharing a table with a gent in the fastener industry while we consumed our sandwiches and respective pints (I went with the Harvest Ale, she chose the Smoked Porter) A brief stop later and her work stuff was deposited at her apartment, clothes were changed, and off to the Block for the main event. Stay tuned for a more full accounting of the Kazoo Deathmatch, possibly with video.

Saturday, she treated me to lunch at a nice family-owned Lebanese cafe. Tasty Shawarma plate. After some idle puttering about dealing with sundry errands, I made her dinner (broke out my old family meatball recipe, some generic jarred sauce, and rotini pasta) (ok, sure, nothing fancy, but I did insist on making the meatballs, which she really seemed to like.) Watched some Doctor Who. (I know, I know, there's a trend here, but when I asked her if she minded the repetition, her response (which I won't post here due to your sensitivities, dear readers) gave me cause to believe that as trends go, it's not a bad one.

Keep an eye out for an end-of-year-spectacular post in the next few days. With as strange and wonderful a year this has been, it would be a disservice to not try to recognize it somehow.

-transiit

Thursday, December 20, 2007

I think I'll consider this a badge of pride.



UPDATE: The survey thing done broke and now redirects to a dating site, so I edited to redirect the link to google instead (which is probably at least as accurate). Oh, and I cheated and inflated my number a bit.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Bacon Cookies

So a couple days ago, I skimmed over an article regarding German Bacon Cookies

Didn't think much of it, sort of moved on.

Today, I saw a slight debate through my twitter feed regarding bacon cookies, so rather than weighing in, I figured I'd go back, read the recipe I saw, and think about it a little.

The recipe linked above, as it stands, probably would feed into the preconception of a bacon cookie. Note the lack of any sugar, or other sweetener (e.g., honey). A cookie? I'm not so sure, but I've not a solid definition of "cookie", but only my preconceived notion of what a cookie is. That recipe, it ain't.

But, that's not to say that I'd rule out the idea. Many people forget that salt works so well in seasoning because in the right concentration will accentuate the food, not necessarily make it taste "salty". In the same light, there are many recipes centered on chocolate applications that will involve something with a little heat (such as chili peppers) that can accentuate the flavor.

So getting away from the "um, it's bacon. shouldn't that go with eggs or something?", think about what it might bring (and avoid the bacon-bits idea. Might not need to do the "fry it up" first angle)

The first things that come to my mind is a subtle smoky flavor and fat. Fat, as much as it has been reviled, isn't bad. Fat tends to add a feeling of "moistness" to foods. Depending on the cookie, this can be a desired trait. Sort of that "soft-baked" phenomenon. Moist. Tender. Whatever.

And it might just be that the smoky nuances and the salt that it carries with it can be used to your advantage in the flavor department. I think it would pair very nicely with chocolate.

Granted, I've not tried any of this, and I don't think it makes sense to toss in a couple strips of bacon in your next batch as is. I think some adjustment to any given recipe would be needed (remove/reduce any salt or oil called for as necessary), but I wouldn't write off the concept either.

-transiit

Christmas Kazoo Carol Deathmatch.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

And so ends that weekend...

Final Score:
Kitchens Cleaned - 1
Meals cooked - 2
Meteor Showers - 1
Movies Viewed - 1
Minor, and quickly contained Apartment Fires - 1
Miles - ~300
Moments of severe giddiness - Lost count.

A good weekend, I'd say.

So aside from the Dinner/Coffee/Meteor Shower thing I already mentioned, here's the rest of the story:
Saturday morning, I woke up around 10:30 (yes, unheard of from me on the weekends, I know) and went tooling around the county searching for components for a yet-to-be-announced mission. Failure on all fronts. (I blame Ebay. Imagine a long and meaningful rant here. Redacted for now.) Called the girl around noon to see what she was up to, and she asked if I could call her back a bit later as she was currently helping her mother wrangle some sort of festive shrubbery or something. As my then-location was about a mile away I inquired if I could offer assistance, to which I had to submit to a phone interview regarding my festive-shrubbery-wrangling experience (I think I only squeaked by). So after a brief period of festive-shrubbery-wrangling, had lunch with her and her mother (I was on my good behavior. Most off-color jokes were suppressed, and her mother admonished me not to encourage the girl when it came to culinary oddities (such as Coco-Puff-encrusted Pot Roast, a theoretical dish that was posited during the mealtime conversation)

Not to be shown up on the family-awkwardness front, upon escape from lunch and the girl's mother, the girl and I hopped in the car, and we drove out and hung out with my grandmother for a bit. This plan backfired somewhat, as my grandmother told lots of borderline-embarrassing stories about (or at least tangentially involving) me, and the girl started cackling when my grandmother punched me in the stomach. (yup, it's THAT kind of family.)

Back in the car. Escape! Went by the grocery store, picked up some supplies. Explained to the girl the evening's plans (including the Excitement-that-is that is Movie Night (this week's showing was "Being John Malkovich") and me cooking her dinner (The menu was grilled scallops, bacon-wrapped asparagus, and risotto)) Things went reasonably smoothly. She got to talk to a few of the sportsracers. The fan in my range fume hood caught fire while I was cooking, but I was able to quickly extinguish it without much trouble. After a year and a half of not cooking anything of significance, it was pretty obvious that my already stunted sense of time-management in food prep had atrophied, so the scallops and asparagus went a bit long waiting for the risotto, but she seemed impressed with the result all the same. Watched some Doctor Who. Got her home with some margin left before dawn. I even managed to crash well before it started getting light out.

Sunday: Slept in a bit. Woke up early afternoon. Voicemail from the girl. On my way to get coffee and call her back, she called again, so I picked her up, went tooling around a bit (looking for supplies for a project she's working on), swung by Trader Joe's (yes, we ran into the same shopgirl of "It tastes like suffering" fame, who resolutely stated she was allergic to persimmons this time before recognizing us as the other side of that conversation) and picked up some fixin's (menu: Grilled Sausages. I think they had asiago and some sort of mushroom mixed in with chicken and secret spices. Tasty, anyhow. She made some portabello mushrooms, I tried my hand at blind preparation: Butternut squash. Having never made it, never really thought about it too much, it became a test of whether or not I could figure out what to do with an otherwise unknown ingredient. Took a few cues from the girl, and ended up pan-cooking it with a tangerine reduction. Could still use a few tweaks for future attempts, but I've got some leftover that should fit in nicely for lunch with a bit of the leftover risotto) Helped the girl with one of her projects a bit more. Watched some more Doctor Who. Got her home early enough such that we can both resemble productive humans at our respective jobs tomorrow.

It was a good weekend.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Geminids: We're on the road to nowhere.

(Click for larger)

So I thought up an idea to take the girl out to go see the Geminid meteor shower, and there were some slight issues about finding a good viewing location (as you can see from the handy graphic)

I also learned that I should only use my powers of making obnoxious loud noises for good (sorry, lady!)

The best meteor we saw was easily the one that almost made it to the ground while driving out to the final location...it was burning green.

-transiit

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Commentary

Snippet of conversation while watching this



transiit:
there should be a project archiving every stupid thing this administration has done/said.
Right now the silver lining for me is believing we're on the cusp of having the first presidential library that specializes in pop-up books.

viscousplatypus:
and thinkers!
they can think about...stuff.

transiit:
this is going in the blog. should I omit reference to you?

viscousplatypus:
nah.

transiit:
ok. sucks that I even think to ask.

viscousplatypus:
I'm open to infamy.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Info Message.

On my winders box, I'm currently installing some library/framework/enabling technology/whatever bullshit.

The installer turned out to be a stub for downloading the actual software. This usually irritates the hell out of me, because there are plenty of times where I run into this sort of thing on machines that don't have any sort of internet access.

But I think the part that's really giving me the warm & squishy feeling right now is that the dialog box just informed me "Download complete. You can now disconnect from the Internet."

So I'll be right back, I just have to power down a few pieces of gear to fully appreciate the freedom to disconnect that was just grante
CARRIER LOST

Sunday, December 09, 2007

The Blog Council.

I do try my best not to get too encumbered by the ideas that Blogs are going to change the world, and I try to let concepts like New Media whiz by unnoticed (although I have always liked the premise of 'Don't like the media? Become the media!')

That said, I think Ars Technica got it right on in assessing the freshly-formed "Blog Council"

head. clouds. insert.


So the girl I've been seeing and I had a nice interchange with the checker at Trader Joe's this evening while procuring snacks in preparation of the evening's Doctor Who marathon.

Amongst the purchases were a Trader-Joe's-standard-we-prefer-not-to-sell-individual-fruit-multipack of persimmons.

Granted, I've never had a persimmon before, but the old rule about me being willing to try any food (lax definition I might have) so that I can say with conviction if I don't like it, this seemed like a pretty tame option.

(and yes, this came after a lovely exchange badmouthing chestnuts with the "team member" busy stocking the deli case)


(slightly paraphrased. I think this is close to the actual script)
Checker: Persimmons? Have you ever had these before?
Girl: Yes, and they are wonderful.
Checker: Really? What are they supposed to be like?
Girl: Sort of a light sweetness, like a hint of honey.
Checker: Huh. When I tried one, my entire mouth swelled up.
Girl and I in near unison: Uh, I think that'd be an allergy.
Checker: Well, I thought it might be....but I wasn't sure...
Me: It tastes like burning!
Checker: No, more like "It tastes like suffering!"
Girl and I: *cackling*

All in all, just another fine moment in an overall spectacular day.

-transiit

(and yes, I'm a bad man. I think I got the girl hooked on Doctor Who. I'm ok with that.)

Thursday, December 06, 2007

419

I don't get many of these, but this is easily the worst I've seen yet.

Compliments and Greetings,

Upon assumption of office by this new democratic government, series of special meetings were held home and abroad with some leaders of the World Monetary Institution. The purpose of the committee among other is to scrutinize, verify and settle all outstanding total pending Payment with maximum security. And records before me has revealed that your full entitlement valid among other approvals has not been effected as a result of official negligence, this is due to many abnormalities had happened in the institutions where some top official of the apex banks are interested in your payment and they collaborate with impostors who are operating in syndicates all over the world today misled and misguided about the position of your fund and having the opportunity to extort money from you and leave the beneficiary half way.

Please understand the nature of this very transaction it is by two ways for you to receive this fund. For example, if you requested your cashier check to be converted a legitimate liquid cash and transfer into your bank account, its obliged under this condition that you will pay $150.00 for the immediate take off and simultaneous clear up discrepancy and transfer direct to your bank account as you will nominate .it is also the same amount that you will pay if you want us to dispatch your cashier check and it clear upon receipt. No other fees or delays of any kind may be initiated as long as you send the fee. ?Which of the way do you choose please let us know because the officials involved are waiting to hear your considerations of these two options involved in this very transaction. You will have to reconfirm your contact detail to this email <redacted/> or <redacted/> to enable us carry out the action immediately as we are closing down all transactions with all our
foreign clients for the end of the fiscal year.

Finally, note that we can not deduct this amount from your ??approve funds One million two hundred thousand Dollars from this payment exercise because of the insurance policy .as Per security, please note that under no circumstance shall we ship your cheque via regular mail/ postage service and also would be deliver to a P.O. Box address or by wire transfer to your nominated bank account. Immediately we confirm your order we shall direct you on how to send the money to enable us finalise
This transaction.

Sincerely Yours'
Chief John Temple.
Premier Commercial Bank Benin, special duties officer.

I am amused by this.



Courtesy of Ze Frank and his blog

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Playing with the camera.



Futzing with the exposure time, I think this is the first time I got a distinct double image with a digital camera.

DIY or Die

I've been watching this, and I think others should as well.


you can find the rest of in on ye olde gootube.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Well, I went and saw my first play last night (well, first not counting a high school rendition of "Welcome to the Monkey House"), and I must say it was well and truly awesome.

It was an adaptation of the 1964 film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (yes, MST3k covered it), and it did a faithful performance...but with more intentional jokes (such as the polar bear wandering up to the bar and getting a soda)

It's at the Maverick Theater in Fullerton for much of December, so if you have the means, I highly recommend checking it out.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Viral Marketing Hypnosis

Ok, I know it's a shameless viral marketing ploy, but I also know that one or two of you enjoy Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, so such is:

Friday, November 30, 2007

Goodbye, November.




By all means, go pester the invisble man over at Disabled Salmon
Keep each other company with Ze Frank

Go (re)discover the ORG (yes, that means you Rilla)

Thanks to the other sportsracers that joined in on this, high praise to the ones that made it through to the end, and I'll pour one out to all those that didn't make it.

See you in the nebulous future.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

National Blog Posting Month

Well, NaBloPoMo is drawing to a close, and all that is left is plunking on the keys to get through this, and finishing up tomorrow's grand finale post.

I suspect that I'll probably keep on posting with some regularity after this exercise is done, but I feel compelled to reflect for a moment on the things I've learned.

  • Don't post bare youtube clips unless there is really nothing that words can add. Even the incessant ramblings can be slightly more interesting

  • There seems to be no direct correlation between what I think is good, and what the SiteTracker suggests other people find interesting

  • No matter how thin you slice it, it's still bologna

  • I'm not making anyone read this, so who cares what I've learned

  • Don't blog about blogging.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wikity Wikity Wikity Wikity...

It would seem that a few hotbeds of intellectual progress that are public schools have decided to restrict wikipedia above and beyond the general criteria of "don't cite *cough*plagiarize*cough* Wikipedia for any research assignment."

Me, I generally like Wikipedia, but I view it as a starting-off point. Sure, there's plenty of subjects where I just need to get the gist of something, and for that it's pretty darn swell (even have the search form on the main page on my internal webserver). Yes, I agree that the crowdsourcing effect does not guarantee accuracy by any stretch of the imagination, and often can give mistruths due to it being "popular" rather than "correct"

But more so, I think it's wrong-headed to actually block it from school computers. Seriously, what if you wanted to do a report on such fine literary classics as Doctor Who or Batman? What then?

I'll be out tonight.

So not being sure what time I'll be back, I'm going to use this moment of soon-to-be-full-blown insomnia to write a placeholder such that I can lord over those cast aside in NaBloPoMo with such technicalities.

But seriously, aren't you glad you wasted a minute of your life reading this? Couldn't you have been doing something more productive like grooming your Chia Pet or faking your death to cash in for the insurance money?

Well, sure. But I'm glad you read it anyway. Y'all come back soon now, ya heah?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Somedays the Internet is the best things since toast.

As some of you might know, I'm sort of a fan of absurd humor, and every once in a while , the Intarwebs provides me with a really good laugh. (such as The Flying Spaghetti Monster)

So I saw this article on BoingBoing earlier today and my heart was filled with glee.

Greenpeace put it up to a vote to name a whale, and yes, "Mr. Splashypants" is still in the lead.

Can't Write. Must Clean.

*grumble* stupid adulthood *grumble*

Monday, November 26, 2007

Things! Stuff! People! Good!

I've met someone that is at least my equal when it comes to quoting the landmark cinematic wonder that is Real Genius

It has not yet been determined if they are destined to become a future nemesis.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Ok, maybe not.

Got nothing to say right at the moment. Oh well.

These are the words

Pouring out of my skull.

More later! Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Delerium / Front Line Assembly

Some years ago, one of my friends and I got the bright idea to make the "Industrial Family Tree", cataloging all of the side-projects, appearances, etc. of various industrial bands.

Granted, this never escaped the braincrack stage, but that doesn't change the fact that that scene is terribly incestuous. (Go look up Pigface on wikipedia, and you'll get an idea of what a challenge trying to map it all out would be)

But anyhow, here's a fun bit of comparison:

Bill Leeb + Rhys Fulber + Some guest vocalist (such as Sarah McLachlan, Kristy Thirsk, or Leigh Nash) = Delerium


Bill Leeb + Rhys Fulber (and no guest vocalist) = Front Line Assembly (or at least did at one point)

Achtung!

In case there was any doubt, here's a friendly reminder.

There may be a natural expiration date to nonconformist haircuts.

A Return to Commerce

Employee: "Hi, how can I help you?"
Me: "I need new tires. I think the rear ones are fine, but definitely the front need to be replaced."
Employee: "Let's go look."
*employee looks at tires*
Employee: "See, the back ones look OK. A few weather cracks, but not too bad. The front ones should be replaced, though. I can't just rotate them."
Me: "Yes. I need new tires."
Employee: "Yeah, you'll have to replace the front ones. I can tell just from looking at them."
Me: *facepalm*

Friday, November 23, 2007

Cluelessness: A refute.

Care to read one of the most pointless food articles ever? (no, I don't mean this one, but I guess your mileage may vary)

I just read this article from Slate called The Case Against Thanksgiving Leftovers

It was one of the biggest piles of tripe I've seen in a while.

But before I start off on some rant, let me take a moment to agree with the one salient point the author made: Yes, the "media" (whatever medium it takes) does tend to go overboard with trying to leverage seasonal curiosities with recent trends.

And after that, everything is basically wrong-headed.


Those stringy last bits of gristle and meat that cling to your bird are better suited to the raccoons who rummage through your garbage. Do you really want to morph the centerpiece of your most ceremonial meal of the year into turkey bundles (stuffed with turkey, cream cheese, dill weed, and water chestnuts, among other things)?


Anyone worth their salt in the kitchen knows that frugality does not equate to serving up cartilage or fatty bits in the name of sparing that last possible edible matter. If you're down to that point, no amount of herbs or seasoning or fillers are going to change anything, and I think you'd be hard-pressed for me to believe that while the economy isn't looking hopeful, there's few people willing to whittle down the carcass to that point, and I strongly suspect those that would aren't exactly the dill weed and water chestnut crowd.

But that's not to say that it's useless matter. Go make stock or broth from it (the differentiation relies largely on how long you were whittling things down), and even if you've only got a few bones left, consider freezing them until you've amassed a collection that would serve worthy of stock-making. It'll taste better than anything you find in the store, freezes nicely, and there's lots of articles all over the intarwebs giving solid advice on the subject. My only addition is to remind you that fats tend to latch on to stray particles, even in the freezer, so while you can do a lot to reduce the fat content in stock, be sure to keep things as air-tight as you can if you freeze 'em.

Reading through the rest of the article, it gets bogged down in suggesting that anything other than straight leftovers is a vast ad-revenue conspiracy, and then gets distracted from that by getting into animal husbandry.

No, really. Go read it. I'm not kidding.

Me, I've got absolutely no qualms with the idea of people experimenting in the kitchen trying to figure out how to use the last of whatever. It's reasonably thrifty. It gets people trying out ideas and figuring out what they like, hopefully with the mind of altering or improving upon the ideas. Many of those recipes are healthier than saying "Oh, screw it. I'll just go back to Taco Bell for their post-holiday blow-out of CranTurkeyChalupaDillas"

I get the feeling that the author hasn't had a well-prepared turkey, harping on how it's not a terribly tasty meat, it's natural dryness, etc. (Welcome to the wonderful world of brining, the same technique that's saved pork from being indistinguishable from cardboard)

But, the imagery suggests that weeks of planning, epic travels, and a general lack of imagination are argument enough for the premise.

I would recommend to the author that perhaps next year, the ideal menu would involve Chicken McNuggets, cutting out issues like availability, quality, or boredom (they do offer a selection of dipping sauces, after all.)

Me, I'd say go look up recipes. Try them out. Play with them. Find out what you like and what you don't and work from there.

It's the first step towards food-hacking, and as far as I'm concerned, a much better goal to strive for.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Post Holiday Public Service Announcement

When this blog started, it was intended to be a dumping ground for all of my food-related interests (heck, I only signed up for it initially because it was the only way to participate in some Q&A off some food blog), but after the GBC07 (great blog consolidation of 2007), you get all my scattered interests.

If you look back in the archives to around November of 2005, you can see the laughs that was the last time I cooked the traditional Thanksgiving spread.

But, as a public service, I know that there will be some of you out there up to your neck in leftovers in the coming days, so as a starting off point, here's a list of the food blogs I'm currently reading (in no particular order.)



(update: new things I've added since originally posting)


(update 2: this might also be a good resource)


(And as I am known for unsolicited culinary advice, anyone hard up for an idea should leave a comment on this post. Or if you find a really good recipe, or want to help give others ideas, or think there's a good blog that I've been missing)

-transiit

Pop Will Eat Itself

Further ramblings from the "Music You Might Not Know" department.

I think Pop Will Eat Itself was another band I'd learned of from my brother. I don't remember the specifics, but I can recall listening to "This is the Day...This is the Hour...This is This." one late night while working on a sculpture that would've been 1995, so short of carbon dating, that's the best estimate I can give. I do recall that I snagged it out of the used bin at the now defunct Top Ten Records (remember when independent record stores thrived?)

Hey look, an interview clip:


This is the Day is still my favorite of their albums that I've heard. How can you not appreciate lyrics like this:

This isn't love
It's just cheap entertainment,
The stains on the sheet and the crap on the pavement

(Preaching to the Perverted)

Anyhow, they eventually went downhill. Some say it was because after they signed to Nothing Records, Trent got too heavy-handed in producing them. Some say they were just introducing too many new elements in their sound. Some say their time had come and gone. Either way, "Dos Dedos Mis Amigos!", their final album was easily the least interesting to me, with a few good moments sprinkled in here or there, but not enough to recommend to anyone.

Here's one of their videos from the This is the Day years:


BONUS:
Clint Mansell (who you see in both the interview clip and the video) does a lot of film score now, and you might've heard of some of his work in films like Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Smokin' Aces, and yes, Doom (though I don't think anyone watched that last one)

Buy Nothing Day

Yeah, it's that time again.

So for those not familiar, Adbusters runs Buy Nothing Day every year the day after Thanksgiving (day after that for the international version).

So that'd be tomorrow for us Amurrricuns.



All you have to do to participate is buy nothing. As in, nothing. Don't spend money. That is all.

UPDATE:
Consumatron covered Buy Nothing Day way better than I did. Go check it out.

Thanks-something

Hey, before it's too late, consider reading this handy guide of things not to say at the Thanksgiving table

If nothing else, you can use it as a guide in case things start getting kinda slow and you want to spice up conversation.


Happy Holiday.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Further conflict in the Acronym War.

As I will sometimes do, I was listening to NPR this morning as I got ready for work, and the bored, soothing voice that is the hallmark of NPR copyreaders was talking about Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and I swear that he slipped at least once and said IUD.

This illustrates two concepts to me.
1) The Three Letter Acronym (TLA) namespace is clearly saturated and should be avoided at all costs.
2) I'll giggle like a little girl at just about anything.

Either way, I'm still banned from naming anything at work because I kept suggesting names like the "Computer Language Integrated Technology Operational Readiness Information System" and whatnot.

Spite.

I would just like to thank the authors of all the technology and gadget blogs to give me something other than the iPhone to hate this year. I thought it'd be tough after six months of complete saturation of articles speculating upon it, squealing over the release, and reminding us all that it is within all of our power to spend hundreds of dollars on a rather evolutionary technology upgrade, with the added joy of being bound to a single carrier (or dealing with mixed and often temporary results in your scramble to give anyone money for your shiny little toy)

So I'd like to pause and recognize an achievement I had believed was simply not possible. Thanks to your breathless rapture over this week's chosen must-have product, I think I can now safely say that the video game "Rock Band" now generates at least as much of my personal ire.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

damn people!

I got a call at work today.

Wrong number.

They then proceeded to argue with me if it was the wrong number or not.

Er. uh. Hm. Yeah.

I know I've been trying to add more explanatory text with these things, but this is a case where I'm just out of my element. Maybe it has something to do with spending the better part of the evening reading the archives of The Impulsive Buy



Thanks to Dave for the link. Well, credit to Dave anyhow. Somebody tell Dave that if he continues to refuse to have a website that I can link to, next time I'm linking his stinkin' email address.

Monday, November 19, 2007

It's like a heatwave...burning through my skull.

Information Overload.

I use Google Reader as my primary RSS reader. Part of it has to do with accessing it over multiple machines. Part of it has to do with the frustrations I spent maintaining my own homegrown RSS aggregator (nearly a decade ago now. Yikes.)

My basic strategy is this: I'm currently watching 92 different RSS feeds, and I get through them whenever they start to pile up by taking a once-over pass at marking the ones that I think are worth reading ("starring them", in parlance)

Occasionally, I'll hit the share button if I think something's really worth reading, and you can see that collection here or the most recent in that fancy little widget in the sidebar.

I think this has some merit where individuals act as a combination of filter and promoter, and I heartily encourage all of you to consider that if you had your way, how you'd like to see the dissemination of information to go down.

Oh, the humanity!

With the holiday season fast approaching, I call upon all of you to remember the Lutefisk Riots and vow to never let such a travesty happen again.

The boomerang birds are back.

It seems I am completely inept when it comes to using the postal system.

This is the second attempt I've made at sending a friend a package, and after a three week jaunt has been returned.

Previously was a transcription error on my part.

This time, some kind soul overwrote part of the zip code. Possibly another person wrote "Unknown" on the box, it got stamped "ATTEMPTED NOT KNOWN" and returned to me.

Time to go find another box. Blech.

Oh, cynicism

I read this and hope things are getting better.

But there's a lot of complications yet to be overcome.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Someday, I hope people realize...

That educational comics are the worst.

Zen and the Art of Garbage Disposal Repair

So on Friday, the leasing office left a notice on everyone's door indicating how to deal with most maintenance issues that might come up during the holidays (I especially like the guilt trip near the end: "If you do need us during the holiday we will have someone available to postpone their celebration to make sure your celebration continues.")

Anyhow, I read through the tips, and got to the section on how to reset your garbage disposal. Considering that my disposal hasn't worked in six months and I keep forgetting to call in a work order, I said "Hey, why not?"

It seems there is a small red button on the bottom of most (if not all) garbage disposals that works much like a thermal circuit breaker. I've had a garbage disposal on and off throughout life and I've never heard of such a thing. Is there a manual somewhere that I was supposed to read?

So I pressed the button (it was clearly in the "tripped" state). Turned on the water. Flipped the switch.

*hummmmmmmmmmmmm*

Well, it's a start. Before it did nothing.

So I consulted my good chum the Internet and found a PDF of basic apartment care instructions for student housing somewhere, and it actually had a section for "But what if I pressed the red button and now my disposal only sits there humming?" (Holy cow, those red buttons must be universal in the realm of disposal anatomy!) Seems there's another trick that involves an allen wrench (some call 'em hex wrenches) that will let you manipulate the drive assembly from outside the unit. I went and dug out my socket kit (heretofore used mostly for disassembling things for comedic purpose) and behold, there was a hex port on the bottom of the unit. Some struggling, some profanity, some grinding noises and some very tired arms later, the bond that had fused the inner mechanics together was broken and the disposal breathed new life.

I'm sitting here asking myself: Is this stuff common knowledge? Did I miss out on that life lesson?

Do you have a garbage disposal? Are you aware of the standard maintenance features?

Infographic


In case you didn't know, one of the coolest people around makes the best infographics EVAR.

She recently moved her blog, so if you've not been dutifully reading it, perhaps it's time to start: Viscous Platypus

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Carter USM

So I was having a conversation with an internet friend last night ridiculously early this morning about the recent change in youtube embedding strategy (his angle was add more content), and combined with a comment a bit ago asking why I post these things, I figure a little explanation is in order.

I post things that I find interesting or like for one reason or another, and want to share with other people. I got wrapped around the axle for a bit trying to think of how to make this supremely effective, but then I remembered that having a blog isn't a commercial opportunity for me (note that no matter how hard google/blogger pushes them, I've not signed up to stick ads on here), but just a chance to sort of randomly babble at anyone that cares to listen (which as many will attest is basically the hallmark of my interpersonal communication stylings.)

So, a little story.

I first heard of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine (aka Carter USM) in the mid-90s while sitting in a Taco Bell talking with my brother about some of the music I'd been plinking out with my computer.

Brother: "It has a very Carter USM sound to it."
Me: "Who?"

I think he tried to explain something about them coming from the same sort of scene that gave us Renegade Soundwave, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Jesus Jones, etc. and I did my best as a little brother and promptly forgot about them.

Until a year or so later when I was perusing the used cd section at some now-defunct chain record store, and stumbled upon a cd single for "The Only Living Boy in New Cross" At the budget rate of 99c, I figured it couldn't be too horrible, yeah?

Picked up a few albums in physical form over the years, and with that whole emusic thing, grabbed a few more.

To the point where I went for a two-month period last year where I listened to Carter and nothing but. (Those of you that suffered through my Tub Ring obsession earlier this year will be familiar with this phenomenon.)

Anyhow, I went searching for a sample to share with you nice people earlier, and discovered that they finally played their "last" show at the beginning of this month, so there's live footage all over youtube of that. Me, I can only watch so much cell-phone-camera bootleg footage, so I'd rather suggest this:

Star Wars: The Hills Have Eyes

Found while browsing Blip.tv:

Richard D. James : Aphex Twin


Friday, November 16, 2007

I have strange friends.

So I feel compelled to prove I can be stranger.

But what does it mean?

These are words, comprised of letters, which are formed by pixels made up of electrons.

But do the clusters of sub-atomic particles which form representative glyphs actually mean anything?

While I go sort that out, watch this video from GOOD magazine

Thursday, November 15, 2007

What have I wrought?

Apparently it's Eurodance week at mmmm....donut



Courtesy of Mein Bruder

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Tutti Frutti Summer Love

Matt over at Independent Creator has apparently decided that I don't get enough Eurodance in my life, so he sent me this.



I laugh heartily.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

ack.

I'm craving really bad mexican fast food.

Stupid brain.

Already had fast food once this week...I don't suppose Taco Bell could be justified seeing as nobody in their right mind would classify it as "food", right?

blech.

As a lad, I recall a lot of waiting. Waiting for summer. Waiting for christmas. Waiting to be done with school.

Waiting, and having something to look forward to.

I think one of the greatest disappointments of being an adult is realizing that I don't have much to wait for anymore.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Blixa Bargeld : Einsturzende Neubauten


Revisionism

I get a lot of crap email at work on the company email lists (like Company News Now and whatnot), most of which I don't even bother reading. So it wasn't until this morning that I got around to reading the SPECIAL VETERAN'S DAY MESSAGE FROM COMPANY VICE PRESIDENT WHOSITS that was sent out on friday.

Something to the effect of "This Sunday, we will take time to remember the men and women of the armed forces..."

Ok, I get it. You don't want to give us a paid holiday. Just don't pretend that the holiday isn't observed on monday to do so.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Mike Patton


Mindless Link Propogation

Sorry. Got nothing interesting to say today. So here's some stuff I've read that I thought was interesting.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Rob Wright: No Means No.


hey hey

So as a step towards ditching the constant youtube embedding, let me refine it a little.

Some artist I like. An interview and an example. See where this goes.

-transiit

p/d/p



So one of the projects I contribute to is called Picture/Date/Place (p/d/p), where every month a bunch of sportsracers take a picture at the same time, typically on some theme. So at 10am this morning, I crawled out of my hole, took my picture, and then went back to bed. The theme for this month was "Faces"

Rules and information over at Disabled Salmon. Look for the Photography section.

-transiit

Friday, November 09, 2007

Writers and stuff



Link sent to me by Pilot

Oh, good news..

The closest fire to me from all them fires two and a half weeks ago?

It's finally contained

Maybe they'll even get it put out soon.

AAAaaaUGGh!

All things in moderation

Like comments.

It's not that I get that many on here, but in comparison, the amount of spam and other crapfloods are worse.

And I'm usually pretty good at staying on top of going through them.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Self Restraint

Self-Restraint: exhibiting restraint imposed on the self; an effective temperateness in debate.

Usage: Not going to Wal-Mart and asking in my creepiest voice "Hey, you still got any of them date rape toys?"

I swear I did not make this up.

curious...

every once in a while it probably makes sense to reflect a little...

So I was thinking about it a bit ago, and I came across a question I couldn't answer:

For all the things I've gained, can I say the things I might've given up were worth it? For those that balance unfavorably, are the things lost gone forever, or just lurking in a forgotten corner?

a curiosity, indeed...

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

argh!

so many stinkin' ideas, so little motivation to make any of 'em happen.

off to go work off the project list. maybe I'll have something worth posting before the weekend?

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Batter Blaster.

Yup, just another slow night with the Batter Blaster

Monday, November 05, 2007

Is it safe?



Thanks, Squeak

-transiit

Hello!

Not planning on being online the rest of the day, so here's a hearty "Hello!" to the usual friends, completion of the NaBloPoMo requirement for the day, and whatever else I could've said that would sound poignant or profound.

Happy day!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Happy Best Day of the Year

Stupid daylight savings time. Good riddance.

I go watch tv and probably go back to sleep.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Apparently...

I was told that I wussed out on my earlier blog post, so let me pester you, gentle reader, with further things scraped for the zero-content zone.

Fallout Intros 1 & 2, courtesy of youtube.





Fallout 3 Teaser:


And now I'm going to go back to playing Wasteland, as soon as I write a new auto-save script. I'm thinking I'll use CVS again.

OMG! Did you hear?!?

Amish purple potatoes are $1.00 per pound at Sparrow's!

Friday, November 02, 2007

bloop!

Short blog post tonight so I can go play with this

Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Jecka Situation

Still November 1st in my time zone, still counts.

And for you NaBloPoMo types, go wish her a happy birthday on her blog


And so it begins...

(cue Rocky theme music)
da na na da na na da na NA na na
da Na Na da Na Na DA NA NA NA NA
DA NA DA NA DA NA DAAA NAA NAAAAAAA.....

what, you thought I'd give up my A-material in the first half hour? Crap, I've got to stretch this stuff out!

Ok, fine. I'll try to post again later. And take it seriously.

(you people have no sense of humor)

-transiit

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Scratch that...


Maybe I'm just self-loathing.


Signed up for NaBloPoMo as well.

Don't cry for me, Argentina.

Attention

In support of another sportsracer, I signed up for NaNoWriMo

They say I should tell people this. So I guess I am.

So if I'm cranky or distracted the next few weeks, it's because I'm trying to take the project seriously.

That is all.

-transiit

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Go Team!

If there was any doubt, I think it's becoming pretty clear that our federal government is now running with any idea that sounds good at the time.

From an AP article hosted at MSNBC

"FEMA Workers Masquerade as Reporters"


The general idea: FEMA had their own staffers lob easy questions at their press conference regarding the recent fires around these parts, rather than risk looking like a bunch of knobs again in the light of all the recent post-Katrina comparisons.

Excerpts:
"The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California."
Really. Scolded. Wow. Good thing they didn't have to resort to something drastic like making FEMA stand in the corner for 15 minutes, or go to bed without its supper.
My favorite vile quote of the article:
"Keehner said senior leadership is considering whether a punishment is necessary."
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.

-transiit

Friday, October 26, 2007

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Feel free to feel horrified.



Blame Viscous Platypus. She sent me the link.

(and it's vaguely less horrible on the second viewing)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Enough.

Pre-posting this as I'll be off the grid for some personal reflection.

I've had enough. Maybe two months of exile is enough for every year that was.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Found my phone....

But, I'm going off the grid for a day.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Oy

What a strange weekend. At least I have the weekday routine to recover?

Anyhow, watch this. I dig it.



Bonus points for rocking the sportsracer awesomeness.

Oh, and I seem to have lost my phone again. So if you'd planned on calling me, it might be a bit before it turns up. Just sayin', is all.

-transiit

Friday, October 05, 2007

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

tub ring

Ok, so I spent most of the summer listening to one band, and it made me a bit loopy. So, an angry mob convinced me "Hey, it's fall. Put it away for a couple months."

So fine. I get it.

But one last hit, you know?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

First Rain of the year.

And I was standing outside enjoying it as best I could.

Can't figure why so many of my neighbors were running around trying to avoid it.

Screw it, I'm going to go stand outside for a little while longer.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Helter Stupid

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Oh, now I get it...

So every couple years, the apartment next to me gets rented out to Israeli students and/or tourists. I'm not the most culturally literate, but I'm just smart enough to pick out certain phonetics when they're jabbering on their cell phones. That back of the throat thing. Maybe I'm fooling myself.

Anyhow, tonight I thought this year's batch was going wacky when they picked up a bunch of votive candles in bulk and had all their lights out. Someone made a joke about whether they'd started chanting yet....

Well, it's several hours later, and I think I picked out the root cause. I don't know the circumstances, but they seem to have no electricity. My guess is someone didn't pay the tab.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Maybe XKCD amuses me more than it should....


See here for the original.

Friday, September 07, 2007

I should post something...

But my mucus-addled brain is a little slow.

So go read this instead.

How can you not appreciate people that are working on distilling flavor out of any possible food into a stock or consomme?

Seriously. Waffle stock. These people must be genius.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Oh, and hey...

The next time you find yourself thinking about what movie to watch, might I recommend The Iron Giant

Should be easy enough to find, and if you're alright with it being animated, you might be surprised at what they made.

Maybe you should read this.

Maybe you should read this. Or then again, don't.

but is it art?

Ok, so on my first reading of this article, I thought "Yeah. Pet food. Whatever.

At second glance I think it might have some insight regarding what industrialized food has become, target audience agnostic.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

DC: post-mortem

Ok, so I just spent a week in Washington, DC. Here's the highlights:

-Not as hot and humid as I expected, but still darn uncomfortable.
-For my first time staying at a hotel that charges over $500/night, there sure weren't much in the way of amenities.
-Don't try to get food in certain parts of town after midnight. You're just setting yourself up for failure.
-The area roadways are basically designed to keep anyone from ever figuring out where they need to go.
-Constant stories in the local newspaper aside, the subway was far easier to get my head wrapped around, even with all the closures I kept hearing about. And I'd never ridden a subway before.
-The local television news is more than happy to worry about some football player's news conference than say, the US. Attorney General resigning.
-Same goes for the press secretary resigning.
-While passing by a Caribou Coffee that was closed before 8pm: "See? This is why Starbucks keeps winning, the bastards."
-There ain't no such thing as a free drink. You'll pay for it sooner or later.
-No matter how cynical or jaded you're feeling, seeing a good friend can still make everything awesome.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Irony is a dead scene

From an article about the premature burning of burningman


"Someone went to a great extent to interfere with everyone else's burn. I think, frankly, an attention whore has made a plea for attention," a Burning Man volunteer named Ranger Sasquatch told the San Francisco Chronicle. "In three days, we will have this rebuilt."


Thank you, Ranger Sasquatch.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Everything's Ruined

Things
 worked
  out
   better
    than
     we
      had
       planned

Capital
 from boy,
  woman
   and man

We were like ink and paper
Numbers on a calculator
Knew arithmetic so well
Working
 overtime
  completed
 what
  was
   assigned
We had to multiply ourselves

A bouncing little baby
A shiny copper penny

And he spent himself
Would not listen to us
But when he lost his appetite
He lost his weight in friends
Baby became a fat nickel so fast...then came puberty

Exponentially

Soon our boy became a million
People

loved him so
And helped him to grow
Everyone knew the thing that was best
Of course, he must invest

A penny
 won't do
  but
   he
    made
     us
      proud

He
 made
  us
   rich
but
 how
  were we to know

He's counterfeit
Now everything's ruined

-FNM

I needed a laugh.



And don't forget to see the source

Monday, August 13, 2007

Retardation?

Stupid things remind me of stupid things, and as loathe as I am to say it, they still have the power to get me all bent out of shape.

So rather than being an idiot about it, I'll take a step back and say "Hey, see you in a couple days"

-transiit

Friday, August 10, 2007

And so it was...

Not much to say beyond this.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Rumination upon feelings of confession or regret

Ah yes, another shot of "Hey! Give me an Idea!"

So this was an idea offered up by FJeff, "rumination upon feelings of confession or regret." Let's go.

The year was 1996. I was in my first year of college and renting a house with a couple other guys. It was a friday night in early spring, the girlfriend of the time was working her job at a movie theater, and my best friend was back in town on spring break .

Us, not being the incredibly exciting sorts, nor really being men of means, we jumped into my car and headed for the Taco Bell drive-thru.

He is certainly a smarter man than I, having ordered a relatively demure combo meal for about $2.50. Of course, you have to understand that he was attending a private school well known in his field, while I was lazing away at community college, so living up to my lesser intelligence, I ordered two of everything (well, nearly everything.)

I learned a valuable lesson that night. The human body is not designed to consume those levels of junk food in one sitting. But damnit, I did it anyway.

Confession? I once ate $18 worth of Taco Bell as a single meal.
Regret? Well, unsurprisingly, that came later...

-transiit



Other entries from this round:
Miss Jecka - Is a simulation anything more than scientific fantasy?
Viscous Platypus - Is a simulation anything more than scientific fantasy?

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

And more thinkin'

Here's an article that seemed to be a little less sensationalistic than usual.

Having grown up taking apart my toys (and eventually learning how to take them apart in a way such that I can put them back together), this seems familiar.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

The 1-Byte Restaurant Review Guide

I was digging through the archives a bit tonight, and I realized that I'd referred to this a couple times but never actually codified it. So rather than waiting for the gent that helped me start this idea some years ago, I'm going to throw out the idea, RFC style.



This document specifies the Standard One-Byte Restaurant
Review Protocol. This edition serves as a draft of
codifying culinary reviews, without concern for error
handling, option codes, and the security, precedence,
compartments, and handling restriction features of the
review protocol.

In many standards track documents several words are used
to signify the requirements in the specification. These
words are often capitalized. This document defines these
words as they should be interpreted in IETF documents.
Authors who follow these guidelines should incorporate
this phrase near the beginning of their document:

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL",
"SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",
"MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be
interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Note that the force of these words is modified by the
requirement level of the document in which they are used.

1. MUST This word, or the terms "REQUIRED" or "SHALL",
mean that thedefinition is an absolute requirement of
the specification.

2. MUST NOT This phrase, or the phrase "SHALL NOT",
mean that the definition is an absolute prohibition of
the specification.

3. SHOULD This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED",
mean that there may exist valid reasons in particular
circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full
implications must be understood and carefully weighed
before choosing a different course.

4. SHOULD NOT This phrase, or the phrase "NOT
RECOMMENDED" mean that there may exist valid reasons in
particular circumstances when the particular behavior is
acceptable or even useful, but the full implications
should be understood and the case carefully weighed
before implementing any behavior described with this
label.

--

The one-byte restaurant review protocol is intended to
give a standardized meaning to culinary reviews,
preserving both common definitions of criteria, as well as
offering a reader as much information as possible in the
most efficient manner.

While this specification does offer some subjectivity in
the thresholds of certain ranges, the expressed goal is to
define a central format that can be interpreted by a range of
products from diverse vendors.

--

Format:

The restaurant review protocol uses a data structure in the
form of a single byte, with the bit positions indicating
various features as shown below

0123 45 67
^^^^ ^ ^
|||| | |
|||| | \- Cost: 11: Everybody's got two mortgages these
|||| | days.
|||| | 10: One good meal is worth a week of
|||| | ramen.
|||| | 01: One good meal is worth a dinner of
|||| | grilled cheese sandwiches
|||| | 00: Woohoo! Cheaper than the unlabeled
|||| | canned food at the megalomart!
|||| \- Quality: 11: Better than sex.
|||| 10: Better than Ezra.
|||| 01: Better than dirt.
|||| 00: Better than nothing.
|||\- Formality: 1: Dress up
||| 0: At least wear something.
||\--- Take-out: 1: It's an option.
|| 0: You go now.
|\- Cleanliness: 1: What you'd hope for.
| 0: Alert the CDC.
\- Availability: 1: There's a good chance you can get
what you search for.
0: Plan for it. They might only be open
five minutes a year.
--
Example:
Many 1-byte restaurant review compatible applications may
use the hexadecimal equivalent to the binary, so a common
occurrence would be a review such as "7e" or, "01111110",
which would translate to "rarely open, clean, take-out is
available, wear the nice threads, best food you'll ever
have, non-bankruptcy expensive"



Thursday, August 02, 2007

No shortage of things to think about.

Granted, I could care less about Procter & Gamble or some AMEX promotional stunt under most circumstances, but but this might be an interesting read.

-transiit

Hey!

Once upon a time, I had a half dozen different blogs that were rather subject specific. Not that I ever posted in any of them...

But considering that before the great blog consolidation of 2007, this was my food blog, I'm going to post something apropos for a change.

My friend Thorn (aka Thom) has recently started a video blog

You should check it out.

(and let me take a moment to acknowledge his design aesthetic, using the same template as me =) )

Monday, July 30, 2007

Something to think about

If you've not spent much time thinking about intellectual property law lately, maybe it's time you took a moment to think about where things are going. Here's an article near and dear to my heart, and one of the better arguments I've seen in some time. It's a good read, even if the possible effects won't hit you directly.

The Coming Software Patent Apocalypse

Sunday, July 29, 2007

The briefest of ruminations

Ok, so I'm no expert in inter-personal relations, but I will say this:

I'm just smart enough to write down in a little book my thoughts about other people, rather than airing dirty laundry or speculation all over the place. Seem untrustworthy? Lands in the book. Prone to telling stories? Lands in the book. Constantly seeking attention? Lands in the book.

An online community I occasionally participate in seems to be having issues with such things, or at least a few of the participants.

Better the book than some stupid drama, but I reserve the right to draw my own conclusions.

-transiit

Monday, July 23, 2007

I loves me some free advertising.



Anyone with a 7-11 nearby, grab a couple post-it notes and fill out my blog URL. Take a picture and I'll post it with pride with credit and linkage. email submissions to freeadvert@transiit.org

Permanently deface it and I'll disavow any knowledge.

I'm Scandinavian sized!



I hope "Scandinavian sized" is something to be proud of.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Well, so much for the suicide pill...

There was a running joke that I'd picked up a cyanide capsule in case I got word that turning 30 wasn't worth it.

Too late.

So instead, I stayed up the better part of the night making something for one of them collaborative "art" things I tend to participate in, but it's sort of topical, being my birthday and all:

Friday, July 13, 2007

Help Fjeff.


It's a good cause. Won't someone think of the children?

Passin' the time.