February 2006 Archives

I finally was able to get a tauren named Carne in World of Warcraft. I've always thought that would be a good name. His last name is, of course, Asada. Damn, now I want a burrito.

I am such a geek. Help me!

Swiped from Bookslut. Compare and contrast Brokeback Mountain and Curious George, as written by a freshman.

Although Curious George and Brokeback Mountain share many similarities, they also share many differences. Both involve men in hats, but the meaning of the hat changes.

Curious George is the story of a monkey and the man he adopts. The Man in the Yellow Hat works in a museum, where he never figures out that Drew Barrymore has a crush on him. He must be gay or something. He gets sent to Africa to find a statue that could save the museum. He doesn't, but he could of if he had figured out how to read the map. A monkey steals his hat, which is like stealing his identity, but it's a hat. It's an example of nature's inhumanity to man. [Confessions of a Community College Dean] [via Bookslut]

Ripped from the local paper. We tried this last weekend and it was really good, and we ended up with nice leftovers for a few days.

Braised beef Sandwiches

• 1 (2-1/2 pound) boneless chuck roast
• 2 tablespoons oil
• Kosher salt
• 4 cups diced onion
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon granulated onion
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 cup Jack Daniels
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup ketchup
• 6 to 8 Kaiser rolls
shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. heat the oil in a heavy bottomed Dutch oven pan over high heat. Season the roast with kosher salt, then sear in the Dutch oven for 2 to 3 minutes on all sides on medium-high heat. Remove the roast, and set aside.

Add the onions to the pot and saute or 2 to 3 minutes until lightly caramelized. Mix in the paprika, cumin, granulated onion and garlic, and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and carefully pour in the Jack Daniels. Return to heat, burn off the alcohol (it will catch on fire then burn out), and reduce by half.

Add the beef stock, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. return the roast to the pot and cover the meat with parchment paper, leaving no air pockets. Top the pot with the lid and place into a pre-heated 300 degree oven. Braise for 3 to 4 hours, or until the meat easily falls apart. Remove from the oven, and let cool for 5 minutes. Place the meat in a large bowl and shred with a fork. Return the pot to the stove and bring the liquid to a simmer over medium-high heat. Return the meat to pot, and reduce until liquid is slightly thickened.

Slice the rolls in half and pile the meat onto the bottom half off the roll. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and cover with top part of roll. Makes 6 to 8 sandwiches.

Pablo Picasso
"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."

[via Quotes of the Day]

While looking around the iTMS for some new podcasts to listen to today I came across one by Sasha (the DJ). Pretty cool, so far he's just got two mixes up, both live mixes (which I love the best), but it's a cool start. Definitely worth a check out if you're a fan (and even if not).

Now I'm searching for any other DJs who have podcasts. This is also helping to inspire me more to do one of these myself.

I just took in the first three episodes of The IT Crowd, a new comedy on Channel 4 UK. It's about the members of an IT group working in the basement of a large company. It's silly, has many geeky moments, and is pretty damn fun (though it did take an episode or two for me to get into it. The show is from Father Ted creator Graham Linehan and seems to have much of that same kind of feel.

Recommended if you like british comedy shows. You can find it at the usual bittorrent sources.

I took this test a good decade ago and am surprised to find that I got the same exact result. Though most of the explanations for the various numbers seems a little simplified to me (based on what I'd read in the past).

the Peacemaker Test finished!

you chose BX - your Enneagram type is NINE. "I am at peace" Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them. How to Get Along with Me If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure. I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advatage of this. Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit. Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally. Ask me questions to help me get clear. Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery. Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings. I like a good discussion but not a confrontation. Let me know you like what I've done or said. Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life. What I Like About Being a Nine being nonjudgmental and accepting caring for and being concerned about others being able to relax and have a good time knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe What's Hard About Being a Nine being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally being confused about what I really want caring too much about what others will think of me not being listened to or taken seriously Nines as Children Often feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant tune out a lot, especially when others argue are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves Nines as Parents are supportive, kind, and warm are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele The Enneagram Made Easy Discover the 9 Types of People HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages You are not completely happy with the result?! You chose BX Would you rather have chosen: AX (SEVEN) CX (TWO) BY (FOUR) BZ (FIVE)

Tomorrow my parents head down to NOLA to party it up for a week at Mardi Gras. I'm a bit envious, but travel like that and NOLA in general probably aren't great for my health at the moment. It also means I'm stuck home alone once again, this time for a week.

So fair reader, what should I do? Throw a party? Take a road trip? Run around the house screaming? Play WoW for a week straight? Throw a dinner party of some kind also. What? What? What?

Well, there have been no more votes on my Johari Window (though feel free to go add your views) for a day or so, so I thought I'd post the results. I thought they were fairly interesting in that I've never thought of myself as particularly brave.

Dominant Traits

63% of people think that snooze is brave
63% of people think that snooze is friendly

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (18%) adaptable (27%) bold (0%) brave (63%) calm (9%) caring (18%) cheerful (45%) clever (18%) complex (0%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (63%) giving (27%) happy (9%) helpful (9%) idealistic (0%) independent (9%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (36%) introverted (0%) kind (27%) knowledgable (9%) logical (0%) loving (9%) mature (0%) modest (9%) nervous (0%) observant (18%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (18%) reflective (9%) relaxed (18%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (9%) sensible (9%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (18%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (18%) warm (9%) wise (0%) witty (9%)

I also have one of those nohari things, feel free to rip me to shreds.

I feel like I'm in a snow globe.

This has popped up everywhere in the last 12 hours. Sheesh. Here's my Johari Window: http://kevan.org/johari?name=snooze. Tell me what you think of me or something.

From McSweeney's, The Elements of Spam.

14. Use the active voice.

Notice how aloof the passive voice is.

Your balls are to be slurped the most by cum-starved nymphos!!!!!

Hardly persuasive. The five exclamation points feel tacked on, an attempt by an inexperienced writer to breathe life into a desiccated construction. The active voice, however, allows you to write with verve and straightforwardness.

Cum-starved nymphos will slurp your balls the most!!!!!

CNN has an article on "Maid Cafes" in Japan, a popular place for some otaku.

Maids rule in Japan's nerd nirvana

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- "Welcome home, Master," says the maid as she bows deeply, hands clasped in front of a starched pinafore worn over a short pink dress.

This maid serves not some aristocrat but a string of pop-culture-mad customers at a "Maid Cafe" in Tokyo's Akihabara district, long known as a Mecca for electronics buffs but now also the center of the capital's "nerd culture".

"When they address you as 'Master', the feeling you get is like a high," says Koji Abei, a 20-year-old student having coffee with a friend at the Royal Milk Cafe and Aromacare.

"I've never felt that way before." [CNN]

I've been aware of the whole maid thing in Japan for a while just due to the amount of anime shows about maids. They are a whole genre in and of themselves. Everything from victorian romance type stories to action shows with robot maids to catgirl maids. But for some reason the idea of going to a maid cafe just sounds... wrong. It just sounds like too much of a bad joke. I especially like the line in the article about being able to get your ears cleaned (WHAT?). It actually is probably mostly an extremly focused version of what I've heard of called cosplay cafes, where the waitresses are dressed like characters from various anime shows.

Jane Pinckard asks the question Is World of Warcraft the new Golf? in an article over on 1UP.com.

Overheard, at brunch: two tech entrepreneur types discussing World of Warcraft. What server are you on? What guild? Oh yeah, me too, I heard it's a good way to schmooze.

Is that true? Has logging in to the world's most popular massively multiplayer online game replaced a few rounds on the links as the way to make the right business connections in a tech-driven culture?

The particular Guild discussed by the brunchers above was started by Joi Ito, who became a WoW fan after embarking on the game to do some research on social networks. Joi, the money-and-idea guy behind internet companies PSINet, Digital Garage, Infoseek Japan, and social software like Moveable Type, Technorati, and Socialtext, has quite a few hangers-on who hit him up for advice, money, or access to his Rolodex. [1UP.com]

The fun thing about this is that the guild I'm a part of, We Know, is the guild Joi started. It's become a fun group of people with more than a few people from various other startups and internet companies. It's kind of fun knowing that the person you're questing with could be the CEO of some company you've heard of for ages.

Is it the new golf? I'm not sure about that. Maybe it's like the new paintball instead.

Edit: It's even hit Slashdot.

I tried playing around with Pandora a bit more tonight. In the past I'd gotten frustrated with it by trying to get it to play techno. The problem is it has next to no techno and when it runs low on selections it seems to start pushing me towards listening to other things I don't care for.

Tonight I started out with The Housemartins. Things started okay, but started to travel away from that style. I thought of other things that might fit my mood tonight and ended up adding The Style Council and The Blow Monkeys in for flavor. I think I fucked the station up because now it is playing Dead or Alive for me. Not what I was really going for.

One thing I'd love to see from Pandora is a more broad selection of ratings for songs you listen to. Like, I want to say "don't only play this song, but don't play anything by the band performing this song because I never want to hear them again. I hate it that much." Just thumbs up or thumbs down doesn't do it for me.

Overall I'm finding Pandora to be frustrating. It's not playing stuff I don't like, but it's not playing stuff I'm not in the mood to hear (though it did just play some Mike Viola).

Delta Heavy is a new documentary covering the 2002 tour of DJs Sasha and Jon Digweed. Newsweek online has an interview with Sasha that I thought was pretty decent. I haven't seen either of them spin in ages. I still remember the first time I saw Sasha spin was back in around '95/'96. That night at Metropolis in Irvine, CA is still one of my top five nights out clubbing. I wasn't tainted by labels on genres as much at that point so I was able to just really kick back and enjoy. It was pure magic.

Maybe I'll be able to go out clubbing again sometime soon. That would be a good thing.

There are lots of fun side effects to getting an organ transplant. Most of these come from the various drugs you are on after the transplant. You get things that cut down your immune system, lots of steroids, etc. One of the more fun side effects is that you can lose bone density. I get treatments to help it, but I can only assume that this is at least part of the reason why I've had two teeth have hunks that have broken off in the last six months. I already feel fanatical about brushing, sheesh.

Today it happened while eating a tuna fish sandwhich, I wasn't even eating anything hard. Time for a trip to the dentist.