i will never update this

One more reason....

2009-05-22T15:38:07Z

Another fantastic example of designers (and, in this case, educators) taking the time to produce awesome stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nteiqLgZFOU&feature=fvst

One more reason to teach students how to learn and how to think rather than how to do things.

/me counts his blessings

Swine Flu Not All That Bad

2009-04-30T16:28:10Z

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-reality30-2009apr30,0,3606923.story

News flash: The regular flu kills tons of people every year. WHO not concerned about relatively mild swine flu.

the future of advertising

2009-04-29T01:58:49Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA&

blech

2009-04-22T02:04:31Z

1) Being sick *sucks*. Being sick during crunch time at work *really* sucks, since the work just stacks up while I'm away. I'll end up working late next week for certain. Missed my OT appointment and spent 2 days inexorably bored and sniffly. On the up side, the podcast for Friday is already edited.

2) Sudafed is great for clearing my sinuses, but not so great for clearing my head. Good lord it makes me feel weird.

3) Beer geekery: Pulled a Sierra Nevada clone out of the secondary fermenter on Sunday, under the influence of the previously mentioned drug, and it tasted *awesome*. The residual sweetness that I've noticed in my last 3 batches seems to have been mostly melted away by the super-extra-mega long time it spent in secondary (more than 2 months). It's racked for carbonation. Should come out nicely carbonated in about 3 weeks, and then we'll see if that residual sweetness is still there. Dan and I have lots of theories about why it's there, but no solid leads.

4) Cori and I are going to visit a Brittany breeder this Sunday. It's likely that she has our puppy. We're going to meet dad. Cost? $700. Sounds like a lot until you remember that we were about to pay $2000+ for a portuguese water dog. By all accounts, they are fantastic dogs.

5) I have to recommend this cookbook that my mom got us: Nigella Express. There are lots of cookbooks out there for the "workaday" type, but not a lot of really good ones. This cookbook is awesome for a few reasons:

Every recipe has a giant full-color photo. Excellent for browsing. No one wants to imagine what food should look like.
Brief instructions. No recipe extends more than a page. This is good and bad, since the instructions are sometimes a tad vague, but overall it's a bonus.
Few ingredients. Nearly everything worth making is less than 10 ingredients, and everything that we've loved is, like, 4 or 5. This fits with Michael Palin's mantra: Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.
Awesome food. Nearly everything is truly gourmet. "Only as good as your ingredients..."... meh. This food is awesome even with store brand stuff.
Fast spins on old classics. Mac and cheese, home made french fries, burgers, a whole section on easy slow cooking... It's a treasure trove of new takes on stuff we mostly buy pre-made in the modern world.

Cori and I have been loving it.

agreements

2009-04-02T16:13:15Z

Can we agree that the question "why are donuts so good?" is silly?

Donuts are good because they are fried cake. It's right there in the name. Fried cake. You can't possibly have a more dense set of fantastic food terms crammed more closely together.

Oh, you could try. You could have like "julienned hummous" or "minced cheddar," but it just doesn't work.

Let's break it down. I would assert that the modifier "fried" is better than all other modifier that describe food preparation. "Grilled" might be a close second, but let's face it, "grilled" isn't even really on the same level as "fried." Minced, broiled, baked, aged... nothing really even comes close. I think we can take this one to the bank.

"Cake" is a little harder. There are lots of foods that might be better than cake, as a general rule: Potatoes (fried, of course), sandwiches, steak, candy bars, chocolate, beer, coffee... you get the idea. And some of them, like beer and maybe ice cream, clearly stand above cake in the Hierarchy of Awesome. But I'm having trouble thinking of a food that so readily accepts frying. You can't fry beer. You can fry ice cream, but let's face it, that sucks. You can fry candy bars, but that also sucks. You can fry steak, but... let's not go there.

No, I'm quite sure that among the top 10 or 20 foods or thereabouts, cake is the only one that comes out so deliciously awesome after frying.

Mmm donuts.

i do this every time

2008-12-26T06:03:08Z

I consistently do nothing for the first half of every vacation I have and then berate myself for doing nothing for the first half of the vacation.

Well now it's the second half and I need to study for the GMAT, decide how to incorporate mustlovebeer.com into geek-beer.com, brew again, transfer the current brew to the secondary, go to Ikea to get GORM (aka cheap brew shelving), clean the office, edit and upload dozens of photos from the last couple months, add tons of content to geek-beer.com, get my computer to my sister, plan something for New Year's... and lots more.

In other news, all future posts will be Friends Only. If you're not a friend and would like to be, please comment on this post (or email me).

Dad, I'm looking at you. You'll need a LiveJournal account.

ah snow

2008-12-23T18:15:53Z

amazing

2008-12-22T05:58:37Z

this is... this is amazing.

I would say there is 10 inches of snow on our patio furniture. Seattle has pretty much shut down. The local QFC missed its morning delivery. We're getting national news coverage here. Spokane has record snowfall. The Portland airport canceled dozens of flights yesterday. Airlines are canceling flights at the Seattle airport in record numbers. My dad says Boise is receiving record snowfall, too. The whole Northwest is going into whiteout.

Totally stunning. I think the odds that Cori and I will be going anywhere for Xmas are pretty slim now. But that's okay. Our house is warm and we've got brie and hummus and crackers and each other and friends in the building.

We managed to get the car into the garage today with the help of Mr. Tea and the Chemist, and it then took about 2 hours to get to the store and back (with the help of the Chemist's Radio Flyer wagon).

Seattle doesn't do well with this. Really. We don't have plows for 45th, even, let alone the side streets. We don't have salt or gravel for the city. Alaska Airlines had to cancel flights because they don't have enough de-icer just for their flights. It's kind of crazy.

But we're cuddling, and we opened Solstice presents. And it's not the end of the world, right?

snow!

2008-12-21T06:45:17Z

zomg

tom says, "snow!"

ethan says, "ok!" (for once)

they go play in the snow.

they say, "jake!"

jake says, "..."

they say, "jake!"

jake says, "... ok."

they all say, "zomg! snow!"

and good times are had.

wtf

2008-12-13T17:58:23Z

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28182873

Former chairman of NASDAQ admits to swindling tens of thousands of investors out of billions of dollars. This is wrong in so many ways...People still think this system works? We're only fining him $5 million? Amazing.

mmm excellent

2008-12-10T01:37:10Z

http://geek-beer.com/

Live now. More content in days to come.

more services like this?

2008-12-09T04:57:03Z

I'm interested if anyone else knows of services like these. Cori and I are fairly progressive consumers, and we're willing to take on some time-consuming burdens if it means we can save money. I'm interested if there are services like this that are sprouting up that I don't know about.

Redfin. This is a real-estate site that reduces overhead and fees by moving some of the responsibilities that a normal real estate agent onto the buyer. Notably, they require you to find the homes that you want to look at. But their cost is dramatically lower than a traditional broker.

Nearly Free Speech. Mr. Tea uses these guys for hosting his blog, and their TACOS (terms and conditions of service) are fantastic, as are their rates. They provide an honest and cheap service by, again, moving some of the "normal" stuff that a hosting service does and making the buyer do it. (The rest of their TACOS are pretty fantastic for other reasons, but that's the main part I'm interested in here.)

There's lot of miscellany here, too. The food industry has long learned to reduce costs by moving burdens to the buyer. Notably, Papa Murphy's sells cheap pizza by making you bake it at home, Costco removes overhead in obvious ways... the example are numerous and the options for home-made versus made-for-you are nearly infinite. There are lots of ways to make useful crap for your house if you're willing to take the time: glassware is a common one, at least in Seattle.

But I'm looking for services -- like Redfin or Nearly Free Speech. Mentally, I put spud.com in this category as well, but I can't really explain why, since it charges tons for its service delivering groceries. ;-)

Ideas?

geekbeer

2008-12-07T05:49:18Z

We brew tomorrow. We have "geekbeer" on twitter. We set up geek-beer.com fairly soon (like, maybe tomorrow -- wordpress template is done). Mr. Tea ordered a Flip Mino that will serve him well, and will give us something to record a vidcast with. He's got a pretty sexy mic, too, for the same purpose. We have geekbeer08@gmail.com.

Only hitch so far: The person who owns geekbeer.com (which we used to have) says he actually might use it for something. Bah. Humbug. And "geekbeer@gmail.com" and "geek.beer@gmail.com" seem to be owned by people not interested in responding to me.

The full plan of record will be posted on geek-beer.com, but the short version is, "brew, provide beer to local businesses to finance brewing, get better at brewing, build and buy better equipment, and slowly expand."

Closer and closer to the dream.

Us vs. Them

2008-12-04T15:27:19Z

Fascinating. Economist on planet money just said, about stimulus packages, that he was concerned that the government was deciding where this money goes, rather than "us" deciding.

Is it just me, or does this seem backward? The government is, in my eyes, way more "us" than the giant corporations that dot the modern economy.

amazon can decide you're a felon!

2008-12-03T16:28:18Z

I know, this seems a little alarmist, but... it's kind of scary. This post is about religion, but that's not the part I'm concerned with. The part I'm concerned with is the stretching of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to include End User License Agreements (EULA) under its umbrella.

I'll just quote the interesting portion here:

The tragic suicide of Megan Meier, allegedly triggered by "cyberbullying" on the part of defendant Lori Drew, is one such case. Drew created a MySpace.com account under false pretenses, pretending to be a 14-year-old boy, befriended Meiers, and then started sending hurtful and hateful messages, and Megan killed herself.

Unfortunately, this sort of harrassment, while reprehensible, is not criminal. Lori Drew violated MySpace's terms of service, but did not violate any criminal statutes.

But the prosecutor's office was under intense pressure to do something, so it tried to stretch the law. It claimed that by violating MySpace's terms of service, she was accessing a computer in violation of the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act), and thus a federal felon. Drew was brought to trial and convicted, and now faces up to three years in prison and $300,000 in fines.

Yes, you probably read that right: Someone was convicted of a felony for violating the terms of service on a website.

Does the Lawbringer care to weigh in?

first gmat...

2008-11-30T23:51:26Z

gmat 14, combined scaled score of 740 (out of 800).

this is, of course, a rather fake score: not done on a computer, not done all at once, no writing sections scored. but it's hopeful, at least!

incidentally: i *suck* at the "correct the sentence" kind of questions. i missed more on that section than on all the other sections... combined. moreover, had there been someone to argue to, i would have argued fully half of the ones i missed. hopefully they get better in later editions of the test.

gmat 31 is looking good so far. then i sit down to take a full test some weekend soon, and then i schedule the real thing. won't be done in December, but hopefully early January.

... wow

2008-11-26T16:51:24Z

http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr/?1

Go head, pick a color.

Ok, that's pretty cool.

Now try the even more amazing demo: Pick a second color.

Wow.

edit: Here's out wedding colors.

pie as life

2008-11-25T22:37:43Z

It's no secret that I like pies. You might call me a pie fan. Or a pie guy. I'm a firm believer that it's always high time for pie time. And that pie time's not just my time, it's fine time. The right pie might reach sky heights, with bright white highlights and slight fire-fruit spice.

In any case, I think the Joy of Cooking got pies right:

A hundred years ago, when pies were often eaten at breakfast as well as supper, many American housewives baked a dozen or more fruit pies every week. Today many home bakers have never made a covered fruit pie, and for them we give a general orientation. We urge you not to judge your fruit pies against the picture-perfect specimens shown in magazine photographs. Under real home conditions, fruit pies often bubble over during baking, brown unevenly, stick to the pan, and yield somewhat runny slices. And no mater what you do, the undercrust always turns out slightly soft on the side facing the fruit. None of this should deter you. Fruit pies are simple, homey desserts meant for eating, not display. And they are indeed delicious.

Oh how well said.

gaiman is the new burton?

2008-11-20T16:34:20Z

http://www.geektyrant.com/2008/11/neil-gaimans-coraline-movie-preview/

Looks pretty Burton-esque to me.

hands

2008-11-14T00:17:43Z

I saw a new hand guy today. William Ericson. After I explained my symptoms, he seemed immediately confident that he knew what was wrong. He gave me a diagnosis. It's was listed on the prescription form as "Ericson Syndrome." Like, named after him because he put the pieces together. It explains all my symptoms. It's treatable without surgery. There's very little risk of long-term nerve damage. And the prescription? It's for physical therapy. No drugs.

It's a fascinating thing to be human. I feel this great wash of relief right now... Not because I have a diagnosis -- that's secondary -- but because Dr. Ericson described other people that are just like me. I'm part of a group. The treatment will be good. The lack of pain will be good. But knowing that I'm suddenly not just "going it alone," as it were, is truly the best part.

Things are looking up.

i shit you not

2008-11-13T15:56:04Z

The world is weird..

canon vs. nikon vs. olympus

2008-11-13T15:01:49Z

Okay, maybe I need a Nikon. Check out ISO3200:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/3009161066/sizes/l/

Wow.

beer

2008-11-10T03:09:12Z

New goal: Ace the GMAT by Xmas.

New goal: Brew beer in the apartment for less than $500.

Steps on the way to those goals: Forthcoming.

text to speech... to ipod

2008-11-07T18:24:13Z

I'm often sent articles that I want to read but don't have time to go through, but I find that I have a lot of time to listen to things. Turns out that OS X allows you to convert text to audio files very easily.

Instructions for my dad:

-1. Open the Speech preference pane in System Preferences and make sure "Alex" is the selected voice.
0. Copy/paste the text you want to convert into a text file:
     1. Copy the text (command-C)
     2. Open Text Edit.
     3. Hit command-shift-T (to change to standard text mode)
     4. Paste text (command-V)
     5. Save the document to the Desktop (makes it easier later)
1. Open Terminal.
2. Type "cd Desktop". Press return.
3. Type "say -f <name of the file> -o <name of the file>.aif". Press return. (you can type "ls" to see all the files on your desktop in order to get the name right)
4. Wait.
5. Double click the new ".aif" file. It should open in iTunes.

You can now listen to it in iTunes or convert it to something smaller (right click on the item, choose "create AAC version"), or whatever.

Pretty cool.

Sink

2008-11-06T15:25:00Z

it's still sinking in that he won. I feel so uplifted. I feel like I should go buy a big TV.