Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Office Corgis
For a man who professes to love Corgis as much as I do, there has been surprisingly little mention of them on the blog. That all changes today! Behold this adorable photo that some kind individual posted to Reddit. Hopefully it will help get your day off to a good start.
Click for bigger image
Friday, March 22, 2013
"Stick"-ing it to the man
Butter.Who knew BUTTER would be my downfall?
For the second time in as many baked items, I've managed to screw up the recipe by adding twice as much butter as necessary. Why? Because what constitutes a "stick" of butter today is not what I recall a stick of butter being was when I was growing up, and my brain apparently get past that change. To clarify, I don't recall seeing this new, shorter-but-broader stick of butter until after I moved out to California in 2006, but I suppose it could have been around longer than that.
A stick of butter, in case you are curious, is equivalent to 8 tablespoons, or half-a-cup.
The first time this happened was with the Pig Cake where I simply checked with my roommate, who agreed that this puny bit of butter was clearly only half a stick. A foolish mistake in retrospect, as the man barely ever cooks, but even though the cake collapsed after baking, it was still edible. THIS time around I was making brioche dough for savory breakfast rolls and double-checked online to avoid repeating my earlier mistake. But even having done this, my brain ignored my just-confirmed data and said, "One-and-a-half sticks? No prob, bro, lemme toss in three of these for you." *sigh*
The good news is I still have time to make a fresh batch before tomorrow morning, and I'll go ahead and see if the current over-buttered batch can be made into normal bread. My guess is probably not, but it seems a waste just to toss it all out.
So remember kids:
A "stick" of butter = 8tbls / 0.5 cups / 4oz.
Image source: 1.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
What I'm Reading - Redshirts and The Long Earth
For Christmas my friend Brian gave me a slew of books to read, and now that pilot season is winding down I've finally had time during lunch and after work to starting catching up on the backlog.
The first of the two books, Redshirts is my favorite of the two as it consistently kept my attention throughout and appealed to my zany sense of humor. If you are unfamiliar with the term, "Redshirts" refers to those unfortunate extras in the Star Trek series who always got sent on away missions with primary cast members and invariably met with untimely death. This book takes a look at the life of some such Redshirts in a Star-Trek-like setting. That alone would provide enough fodder for an entertaining read, but then about a third of the way through, the book takes a left turn into crazy town and gets into the real meat and potatoes of the story. 4 out of 5.
The Long Earth, which I just finished last night, was also an interesting story, but it dragged in the middle and the ending was written more as cliffhanger for a potential sequel rather than cleanly wrapping up the book, which left me unsatisfied. And to be perfectly honest I was expecting more from a book co-written by Terry Pratchett (he of Discworld fame).
The story revolves around the discovery of both a seemingly infinite amount of parallel earths and the technology to "step" between them. The primary plot thread follows Joshua Valienté, a natural "Stepper" who can traverse the Long Earth without technological aid, and Lobsang, a computer who claims to be the reincarnated soul of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman.
The idea of accessible earths is very intriguing, as is the speculation as to how humanity would react to such a discovery. I wish they had delved into that a little more or that the adventures of Joshua and Lobsang had been a bit more lively, but I believe there's still enough there to warrant a rental from your local library. 3 out of 5.
The first of the two books, Redshirts is my favorite of the two as it consistently kept my attention throughout and appealed to my zany sense of humor. If you are unfamiliar with the term, "Redshirts" refers to those unfortunate extras in the Star Trek series who always got sent on away missions with primary cast members and invariably met with untimely death. This book takes a look at the life of some such Redshirts in a Star-Trek-like setting. That alone would provide enough fodder for an entertaining read, but then about a third of the way through, the book takes a left turn into crazy town and gets into the real meat and potatoes of the story. 4 out of 5.The Long Earth, which I just finished last night, was also an interesting story, but it dragged in the middle and the ending was written more as cliffhanger for a potential sequel rather than cleanly wrapping up the book, which left me unsatisfied. And to be perfectly honest I was expecting more from a book co-written by Terry Pratchett (he of Discworld fame).The story revolves around the discovery of both a seemingly infinite amount of parallel earths and the technology to "step" between them. The primary plot thread follows Joshua Valienté, a natural "Stepper" who can traverse the Long Earth without technological aid, and Lobsang, a computer who claims to be the reincarnated soul of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman.
The idea of accessible earths is very intriguing, as is the speculation as to how humanity would react to such a discovery. I wish they had delved into that a little more or that the adventures of Joshua and Lobsang had been a bit more lively, but I believe there's still enough there to warrant a rental from your local library. 3 out of 5.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Daily Haiku - March 16, 2013
Domesticated
Now running free in the wild
Wild parrot gangs.
Thankfully, this is only the second time they've shown up at my place in the 5+ years that I've been here. Imagine fifty or sixty once-domesticated parrots deciding to hang outside your house for the weekend. It's like "The Birds" but for reals.
SPOILER: They are super @#%&ing loud.
Now running free in the wild
Wild parrot gangs.
Thankfully, this is only the second time they've shown up at my place in the 5+ years that I've been here. Imagine fifty or sixty once-domesticated parrots deciding to hang outside your house for the weekend. It's like "The Birds" but for reals.
SPOILER: They are super @#%&ing loud.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Daily Haiku - March 15, 2013
The pie falls apart
But such is the way of things
Baked goods do not lie.
But such is the way of things
Baked goods do not lie.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Standing for your health
Over the last year I’ve seen a number of articles discussing research that apparently shows that sitting around for excessive amounts of time (e.g. a normal desk job) is incredibly bad for us, leading to all sorts of declines in our health and potentially shaving 10+ years off your life expectancy. If you are looking for a nice summary of the findings, here is a handy-dandy infographic detailing all the terrible things that befall you when sitting on your butt all day.
So as these shocking revelations were making the rounds through the public consciousness, our Legal department picked up a new lawyer who brought with her a love of stand-up desks. This in turn has started a movement within my department to transition to such a work style. Three of the seven negotiators have already switched over to this healthier alternative, and it looks like the rest of the department will follow shortly. We've even had people stop by from other departments asking about them! And not being one to pass up an opportunity to save myself a few more years to waste playing Civilization V, I decided to get into the game myself. So today is the first day of what will hopefully be at least one week of working while standing.
Now whereas the neogitators were able to expense $600 mechanical arms for their computers, allowing them to switch at will between standing and sitting, I suspected such budgetary expenditures were beyond the reach of the assistants, so I set out to build my own (much cheaper) version from scratch. Cue IKEA.
For slightly under $25 and a bit of elbow grease, I was able to put together the lovely contraption you see to the right. It consists of a side table, a shelf, and two shelf brackets. I had to add a couple of reams of paper to get the monitor to the correct height, but other than that it's good to go. I also got a floor mat, but it was cheap enough that I let the office pay for it. :D
So the current plan is to try this format for at least week, hopefully three, before deciding whether or not to stick with it for good. Seven hours into the first day and my heels are already killing me, but hopefully that will subside as my body gets used to standing. I have to stay the alternative seems pretty scary. I haven't seen the actual scientific reports in question but if half of what the news articles say are true, I have no desire to going back to sitting around for 15 hours a day (work + computer time at home). Wish me luck!
So as these shocking revelations were making the rounds through the public consciousness, our Legal department picked up a new lawyer who brought with her a love of stand-up desks. This in turn has started a movement within my department to transition to such a work style. Three of the seven negotiators have already switched over to this healthier alternative, and it looks like the rest of the department will follow shortly. We've even had people stop by from other departments asking about them! And not being one to pass up an opportunity to save myself a few more years to waste playing Civilization V, I decided to get into the game myself. So today is the first day of what will hopefully be at least one week of working while standing.
Now whereas the neogitators were able to expense $600 mechanical arms for their computers, allowing them to switch at will between standing and sitting, I suspected such budgetary expenditures were beyond the reach of the assistants, so I set out to build my own (much cheaper) version from scratch. Cue IKEA.
For slightly under $25 and a bit of elbow grease, I was able to put together the lovely contraption you see to the right. It consists of a side table, a shelf, and two shelf brackets. I had to add a couple of reams of paper to get the monitor to the correct height, but other than that it's good to go. I also got a floor mat, but it was cheap enough that I let the office pay for it. :DSo the current plan is to try this format for at least week, hopefully three, before deciding whether or not to stick with it for good. Seven hours into the first day and my heels are already killing me, but hopefully that will subside as my body gets used to standing. I have to stay the alternative seems pretty scary. I haven't seen the actual scientific reports in question but if half of what the news articles say are true, I have no desire to going back to sitting around for 15 hours a day (work + computer time at home). Wish me luck!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Avenues for Imagination
As mentioned previously, I went and saw a show a few weeks ago called "Absolutely Filthy," which was a take on the Peanuts gang twenty years down the road. The story was told from the point of view of Pigpen, now homeless and still plagued by the perpetual dust cloud that helped give him his name. The actor did an excellent job in the role, made even more impressive by the fact that he spent 85% of show constantly hula-hooping. I felt rather foolish that it wasn’t until after the show that I realized the hula-hoop was meant to represent his dust cloud. *facepalm*
As fascinating as the show was, its origin is equally if not more so. Along with their main stage performances, Sacred Fools also has a 21-week series called "Serial Killers" (now in its eighth season). The premise is "five shows enter…three shows leave." At the start of the season five short stories are written and performed for the audience. At the end of the night the audience votes on which three stories should continue on to the following week, with the other two being tossed in the trash bin. The following week those two empty slots are replaced with two new stories, and this voting process continues. The stories that make it through the entire (or majority of) season are often then work-shopped into full-fledged productions for the following year. "Absolutely Filthy" was one of these productions. So was "Watson," which was another excellent production by Sacred Fools, as sequel to which will also becoming out later this year.
Pretty cool, huh? I’ve never heard of such an entertaining process of work-shopping ideas, but now that I have I want to do it myself. Who knows what sort of brilliant crazy bullshit me and my friends could come up with over a 21-week period. And yet, as cool as I think it is, I’ve STILL somehow managed not see a single performance of “Serial Killers.” Hopefully I’ll have that rectified in the next month or two.
Image source: 1.
As fascinating as the show was, its origin is equally if not more so. Along with their main stage performances, Sacred Fools also has a 21-week series called "Serial Killers" (now in its eighth season). The premise is "five shows enter…three shows leave." At the start of the season five short stories are written and performed for the audience. At the end of the night the audience votes on which three stories should continue on to the following week, with the other two being tossed in the trash bin. The following week those two empty slots are replaced with two new stories, and this voting process continues. The stories that make it through the entire (or majority of) season are often then work-shopped into full-fledged productions for the following year. "Absolutely Filthy" was one of these productions. So was "Watson," which was another excellent production by Sacred Fools, as sequel to which will also becoming out later this year.
Pretty cool, huh? I’ve never heard of such an entertaining process of work-shopping ideas, but now that I have I want to do it myself. Who knows what sort of brilliant crazy bullshit me and my friends could come up with over a 21-week period. And yet, as cool as I think it is, I’ve STILL somehow managed not see a single performance of “Serial Killers.” Hopefully I’ll have that rectified in the next month or two.
Image source: 1.
Monday, March 11, 2013
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