I want to be a clone

OK, politzania did this, and it’s right up my alley because I love food. And she wondered how I’d answer, so I count this as interesting, even if it’s only to her. :)

So the deal is this. Under the cut is a list of one-hundred foodstuffs (and they’re all at least technically edible). You go through the list, bolding the one you’ve eaten and striking out the ones you’d never consider eating. Then you post the list on your journal/blog and if you like, head over to the original article and post a link to your post in the comments. If you’re at all confused about what some of this stuff is, just go to the original article. The author has wikipedia links for some of the more esoteric items on the list.

( The list! )

Hm. 47 out of 100. I might be a bit more adventurous than some, but I don’t want to compare my score with Anthony Bourdain’s. :)

OK, I’m a few days behind. Sue me.

Day 14

The Beatles’s Rubber Soul. Easily in the top five best pop albums of all time, regardless of the band, the era or the language. The high points for me are McCartney’s bass line on Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) and Harrison’s vocals on What Goes On. Oh, and those harmonies on Wait... The only song I really don’t like is Girl, and that’s head and shoulders above any romantic ballad that’s made it into the top forty in the last decade or so. Highly recommended. If I could only have one Beatles album, it’d be this.

Day 15

I was going to say going up to northern Wisconsin makes me happy, but the more I thought about it, the more sad and depressed I got knowing those days are gone, probably forever.

I don’t know if I’m going to keep this up.

OK, I’m tired, it’s late and I’m going to bed in a minute, but I need to post this because I’m obsessive. So what have I picked today? Hellboy. I love Hellboy. The character, the stories, the idea behind it...even if it feels sometimes that Mignola himself has no idea where it’s heading. It’s easily my favourite comic series, and the films (well, the first one at any rate; I have yet to see the second) are entertaining.

Goodnight!

Anyone interested in doing so may head over to Flickr to see my photos of Alcatraz taken in April of 2007.

Steve Spalding over at How to Split an Atom has a list of 32 skiffy novels he reckons everyone should have read. sparta5 posted this list a while back, and it’s a good one, with one or two exceptions. She split the list into have-read and haven’t-read, but I’m just going to mingle the lists. I’ll bold the ones I’ve read, italicise the ones I want to read and the rest are either ones which I don’t want to read or don’t care about.

( Here be the list )

And now my own recommendations:
Fifteen. Less than half. Of course I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, but many of these novels are classics. I can think of a few which should have been on this list which weren’t.
Footfall - Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
Old Man’s War - John Scalzi (Spalding does give this as a suggested read)
Heechee Rendezvous - Fredrick Pohl
Brain Wave - Poul Anderson
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury (actually, just about ANYthing by Bradbury is recommended)
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (not skiffy, strictly-speaking, but it’s an alternate history, so I think that qualifies it)
There’s another book I read a few years ago whose name and author elude me. It’s about a man who discovers that his step-father’s shoe business is run by elves, and that he himself is half-elf. It’s amusing and very entertaining, but sadly not memorable enough that I could keep its title in my head. :)

I could go on, but I’m tired and hungry. Got any recommendations? Share ‘em!

I was so busy pissing and moaning about the Perseids yesterday that I forgot to post something that makes me happy. Well my friends, I’d be lying if I said it’s easy thinking of stuff. But this is pretty easy: My friends. That’s right, I’m gonna be a sap and tell you all that you mean a lot to me. There are a few of my friends who aren’t on LJ (actually, only five I can think of off the top of my head) but for the rest of you: I love you. You’re such wonderful people, and I know this because you put up with me. AJ, Erin, Yash, Mike and Lubo, why aren’t you on LJ? Then you’d know! :)

Another thing that makes me happy is pizza. And I’m not too proud when it comes to the pie that made Napoli a household word around the world, I’m not at all. I’ll eat $1 pizza, I’ll eat $20 and I’ll be glad to do so. I used to say there’s no such thing as bad pizza, but a recent experience with a Ralph’s brand cheapo pizza has caused me to adjust that. There’s ALMOST no such thing as bad pizza. :) In fact, as I write these words the oven is pre-heating to 400°F to cook a Mama Celeste Sausage pizza. It’s a single-serving pie from the $1 price range, but it’s a good brand. I sometimes forget and call it the Marie Celeste pizza. “Where’d all the toppings go? The sauce is hot like it was just cooked, but the toppings are GONE!!!” :D

So there we have it. Now behave yourselves. If I have to pull over this post you’re going to regret it.

Well fuck me tenderly with a 2x4, it’s the night of the Perseid meteor shower and the skies are completely covered in clouds. Peak is around 2-3 a.m., so I’m hopeful (but not confident) that the sky will be clear by then. Of course I could always just get in the car and drive north until I hit clear skies but...no. I’d have to drive home in the middle of the night, and that’s not good eats if you follow me.

*sigh*

Well, there’s always the Orionids in October or the Geminids in December. They’re not quite as spectacular (not that I’ve ever been anywhere dark enough to see any of them in their full glory - maybe next year) but fun is fun, right?

Today I laid to rest my faithful mouse of four years, the superb and unsurpassed Logitech Laser MX 1000. Its design was perfect; the way it fit my hand, sublime. It was a very, very good mouse. But its battery, a hard-wired, irreplaceable job had grown too old to hold a charge for more than a few hours, and its charger base was no longer capable of delivering a charge, and so today I knew that at last the time had come to replace it. And the MX 1000 is, sadly discontinued (except for a Windows-only Bluetooth version sold only in Europe).

Such a mouse cannot simply be replaced. Another mouse must be selected which will serve at least as well, and I believe that after a long (and until today fruitless) search, I’ve hit on the best of all available candidates. The Logitech G5 corded “gaming” mouse is one of Logitech’s Mac-incompatible line, but that hasn’t stopped me, oh no. Using a USB driver called SteerMouse I’ve been able to use my new mouse and to even program all its buttons to do useful things. The best thing? Though slightly different, its design is inspired by the MX 1000’s. The feel of it in my hand is nearly the same. I might be tempted to search out its cordless sibling, the G7, but frankly I’m quite tired of searching for a new mouse, and I believe the G5 is more than good enough. No more waking up to that annoying little red “battery low” light. No more charging and re-charging. No more watching as my battery wears out without hope of replacement. Having a corded mouse will take a bit of getting used to, but I’m more than willing to do so.

I felt odd and more than a little sad as I laid my old mouse to rest (that is, threw it out) because I’m sentimental and I get attached to material goods. But I needn’t be sad. It doesn’t care, after all. It has no feelings. It’s like this Ikea commercial:



I don’t know that the new mouse is “much better” but it’s nice and new and works. So rest in peace, little mouse. Your day is done. Let another shoulder your burden now.

This.

Ok, it’s not morning any longer, but here are the two EC songs I mentioned in my last post.

Ring of Fire from Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash.

Complicated Shadows from All This Useless Beauty. According to the album’s liner notes, the song appears in an arrangement which was offered to Johnny Cash, but he rejected it. It’s too bad, because I think he could have done great things with this song, as he would do with Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus and Trent Reznor’s emo opus, Hurt.

ETA: Oh, and it’s MacManus. So probably certainly no relation. Just as well.

I almost forgot! Agh! So. I’m listening to the incomparable Declan McManus (wonder if he’s any relation to my brother-in-law?) better known to you and me as Elvis Costello. The track I’m listening to, Ring of Fire, appears on a tribute to June Carter Cash, wife of Johnny Cash. So what part of all that makes me happy? It’s a two-part thing. I love Elvis, and I love this song. I’ve heard it done by Frank Zappa (with one Mr Mike Keneally, stunt guitarist, doing his best impression of De Man In Black), by Social Distortion (a personal favourite) and by about half a bajillion others. But this is Elvis. He does it more or less straight, but of course it’s Elvis so unmistakable. I’ll upload it in the morning along with the song Elvis wrote for Johnny but Johnny turned down.

This is taken from almsthvn. Hey, babe!

( It's not so much an afterlife as a sort of après vie. )

And now, a cut from the New Christy Minstrels, Woody Guthrie’s classic This Land Is Your Land. When I was growing up I used to listen to a New Christy Minstrels LP my parents owned, a collection of American folk songs including this one. I hope you enjoy it!

I love rhubarb. I’ve been gagging for a good rhubarb pie all summer. Actually, it’s more like two years now. Rhubarb doesn’t grow too well here because it never freezes, and so what rhubarb there is is expensive. Well, $3 a pound, which to me is expensive. Recently we found some for the bargain basement price of just $2 a pound, so we bought some. I still think that’s expensive, but then I come from a town where you can buy a five pound bag for a buck from some kind farmers out on old route 24. I’m spoiled. Unfortunately for me, the last two times I’ve been back home to visit the Criders have been out of rhubarb. Last year there was a drought. This year I just came during a growing cycle. My luck. So we jumped at the chance to get “cheap” rhubarb for a pie. After making the pie filling, Grace had a couple stalks left over. Time for an easy multi-purpose application to use up the leftovers!

Rhubarb is one of those love it or hate it fruits. It’s sour, really sour, so some folks load up on sugar or add strawberries, ruining both berry and ‘barb. Not me. I love the tartness. For me there is no pie finer than rhubarb, and it makes a wonderful dessert sauce. And the sauce, when cool, makes for a decent jam.

We begin with two large stalks of rhubarb cut into one-half inch slices. If you’re using younger rhubarb the stalks will be smaller, so use as much as you think you need. It should be enough to cover the bottom of a two quart saucepan in a couple layers. To this is added half a cup to a full cup of regular orange juice. The better the juice, the better the final product, so use a good brand of OJ, like Florida’s Natural, which is made from 100% US oranges. Use as much as you like. If you wish to do so, you could also add some finely chopped candied ginger at this point, but I don’t have any so I didn’t. Once you’ve got your juice and rhubarb in the pan, add about three-quarters cup of sugar. Use more if you like it sweeter. I like this to have some tang to it, so I use less.

Stir well to dissolve the sugar, and bring to the boil under medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cook for ten minutes, or until the juice has formed a slightly thick syrup. Drop the heat to low and cook an additional ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the rhubarb has begun to break down and the syrup has thickened, you’re done. Kill the heat and serve immediately over some good vanilla ice cream or cool and stash in your chill chest in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Reheat by sticking it in the microwave for thirty seconds and serve, or spread onto toast. Whatever makes you happy.

Looks like mikotokun and kakeochi_umai did this, which means I’m required to by law. It’s a little-known sub-clause in the Patriot Act.

( All politics is local. )

I’d better hurry up and post this. I can hear the black helicopters even as I type this.

For your listening enjoyment, the dulcet tones of Skin and Skunk Anansie in Yes It’s Fucking Political. Actually, Skin has an amazing voice. She’s not quite as versatile as Mike Patton, but she rocks just as hard as he does. In fact, I think I’d like to hear them do a duet. That’d be...wow, I’m dizzy just thinking about it. I better go lie down for a spell. Goodnight kids! Don’t let the politicians bite!

You might think that with all my complaining today and this delovely headache I’ve got right now that there’s not a lot will make me happy, right? Wrong. Today is Friday. While I am not working weekends aren’t really all that special, but tomorrow is Saturday and Saturday means the Farmer’s Market. which means gorgeous fresh strawberries. A thousand times better than anything in the grocery store, I can buy three pounds for $5, which isn’t bad at all. I’d love to get some cherries too, but I’ll be cool with the strawberries. The only drawback is that these berries are always on the cusp of going bad, so I’ve got to eat them quickly. What a hardship! :) So while I’m hurting now, tomorrow I’ll be chowing down on some seriously delicious produce, and the thought of that makes me very happy indeed. In fact, I might buy six pounds. I love them that much.

So we just got back from Sears where we was robbed of something like $800 by the optical department. My eyes are bizarre, so my lenses are always ridiculous, but this time I’m getting “Progressives” which is fancy yuppie denial-speak for “You need bifocals, son!” The dr said I was on the edge of needing them, so I probably didn’t need them, and could’ve saved a hundred bucks or so, but since they’ve got a 90 return policy I figured, try them why not and if I don’t like them, take ‘em back. I also got some nice wraparound Ray-Bans which should help me when going oot and aboot.

Part of the exam is a “pressure test” which I guess tells the doctor if my eyes need to be re-inflated (actually, it’s got to do with intra-ocular pressure, which can cause problems). The test involves shining a blue light into my eye at very close range. Like, the thing has to be a couple microns from my eye. I don’t “do” stuff in/on/near my eyes. After my fear of needles, the fear of losing my eyesight is second only to my fear of Fear of a Black Planet. (rimshot) But it gets even better. The blue light interacts with a yellow dye to form a green ring which through some sort of arcane magick he couldn’t fully explain to me helped him measure my eye pressure. Uh. If I’d been a little kid with horrible impulse control I’d’ve kicked him where it counts and run screaming from the room. As it was I only barely contained that old “fight or flight” reflex. I kinda wish I’d known what was involved with that dye, because my eyes still burn, two hours later, and they ache abominably. I expect they’re bloodshot too, which is the least of my concerns, honestly, but...agh! Grace had worse problems than I did though. Afterward she couldn’t even focus. He gave her some eyedrops to wash the dye away. Not an option for me as I was already on my last nerve. I’ll tough it out, but that doesn’t mean I can’t whinge about it here, does it? :)

Anyway, I leave you with The Joy of Pickled Okra.

kakeochi_umai just posted this earlier today, and what the hell, I’m a little bored so why not? Looks like we’ve got some different questions this time, so here we go. The reason it took me so long was I actually listened to each song. I’m weird, I know. I’ve also uploaded the songs for you to hear, if you care. Aren’t I nice?

1. Put Your iTunes/Windows Media Player/ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal.

( But I can't kill the one I love! )

Bonus track: Violent Femmes’s utterly superior cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”. I gather it was reciprocity for Gnarls Barkley ruining Gone Daddy Gone. I’ve listened to the original of Crazy and compared it to this cover. Cee-lo can sing, but he cannot sell insanity the way Gordon Gano can.

A few days ago I added a bunch of tracks to iTunes from an old library. I literally doubled the amount of music in the library from ~11,000 tracks to over 22,000. And now? Every damn thing I do requires iTunes to beachball for about four or five seconds (or longer). Pause a playing track? Two seconds. Scroll through the library? Five seconds. Rename a track? Two seconds to allow me to start editing, random hiccups while typing and then another five before actually making the changes. Time for another visit to the angry dome.

I’ll grant you this is a fairly large library. It’s certainly above average, with 1,860 albums. But still...I’ve got a fairly fast Mac and as much RAM as I can cram into this little box. These little pauses are adding up to one very angry individual. I don’t know if throwing a newer Mac at the problem would fix it, but even if it did that’d be a really expensive solution. I imagine moving the library from an external drive to my startup drive might alleviate some of the hesitation, but there’s no room at the inn. The library is about 160gb, which is fifty gigs too large for my drive, which when freshly formatted has 110gb on tap.

Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to break down and buy that dual quad-core 3.2ghz Mac Pro with 16gb of RAM. It’s the only answer. :D