In the Headlights

Out With the Old

No, I don't mean me.  Except maybe as a blogger.  When Deborah Jane emailed me December fourth and asked if I ever intended to blog again, I promised, thinking it was a chip shot, two more posts before January first.

Here it is, after 5 PM December 31, and I am just now starting.  Add the extra burden that I think these posts should be in some way meaningful, considering they are now so rare.  I just looked at my blog for the first time in a long time and realize there are a whole lot of comments I need to delete. 

This is a new template for me.  I used to post and download links and photos without thinking.  Now it looks very mysterious.

As every year, I am glad to get shut of the old one, and look optimistically forward to the new.

The last few months got crazy when my Dad fell and sustained a pelvic fracture.  Non-displaced, requiring no surgery, it nevertheless set him back quite a bit.  He spent a few days in the hospital and the rest of a month in rehab.  Home now, learning to walk again, slowly, with a walker and help from physical therapists.  I'd like to thank the nurses and therapists who come to his house and have given him a new lease on life.  We weren't sure it wasn't going to be a nursing home.  He and my Mom are talking about assisted living...We'll see how it goes.

Best book:  Who knows.  I just finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire.  A wonderful fantasy.  The musical might be the best theater I've ever seen.  The book is the story, in all its detailed glory.  In case you aren't acquainted with it, it is the story of The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West.  True in detail to L. Frank Baum's book, it embellishes the story with the history, geography and politics and intrigue of Oz.  Easy to get lost in.  There are some differences from the musical, but when it comes to Jacksonville in April, I intend to be there, too.

I'm also currently re-reading House of God by Samuel Shem.  Another fantasy, this one about a medical residency at a major US teaching hospital.  With all the sex, it's a wonder they ever have time to take care of patients.  With some of the care, maybe it's better that way.  Still, entertaining with a lot of memorable catch phrases.

My electronic landscape changed a lot in the last month or so.  On a busy day, I heard a knock at the door, and tried to shoo away the saleslady standing there, even as I spoke on the phone with my secretary and tried to shoo the cat back inside.  She was persistent, and I wound up switching my cable TV company over to ATT U-verse.  This is a fiberoptic network ultimately sending a signal through the phone wires to the house.  I now get my home phone (unlimited free local and long-distance), my internet (with a provided full-house router) and my television (more channels, music channels, a box  that records TV shows, and is pretty much idiot-proof).  Great images.  And by combining the three, I'm saving $20 or $30 (don't rightly remember, but it's pretty significant) a month.

So with this neat setup, I started to think I should get me some HD technology to replace the 10+-year-old TV that was in the living room.  My research led me to a couple of stores on Black Friday to look at LCD sets, but I found no great deals.  I started birddogging Amazon and B&H Photo (great deals).  I wanted a Samsung LN52A750.  Specifically, I wanted 1080p resolution, 50,000:1 contrast ratio, and 120 Hz response time.  I loved the touch-of-red frame.  Ultimately, I was looking at the ads in the Sunday paper and found that Circuit City had a Sony Bravia XBR with the same specs.  The price was quite low, and they included a free Sony Blu-Ray DVD player.   It was a very good deal.  The Samsung and Sony were about the same price, so the player was free.  I had to pay tax, so it was equivalent to a very good internet deal.  I was going to wait until they informed me that they would refund the difference if I found any of the products for cheaper for 60 days.  Since that would take me through the post-Christmas sales and even through Presidents' day, how could I go wrong.  Also, while there, I picked up a 32" Bravia XBR for the bedroom.  The pictures are phenomenal.  I'm still trying to figure out all the programming, though, since they were just installed 4 days ago.  Meanwhile, I am recording "The Daily Show", "Scrubs" and "House."  I watched one movie a couple of nights ago:  "Love, Actually," which my friend Jill loaned me.  The movie was pretty good.  The picture was phenomenal.  And it wasn't even Blu-Ray.  I have "The Dark Knight" ordered in my Netflix queue in Blu-Ray.  Can't wait.  Saw it at the theater, but can't wait to see what it looks like in my living room.

Anyway, I like the look of the Samsung frame better, but the Sony black lacquered look is nice as well.  The Sony screen is more matte than the Samsung.  The Sony speaker is across the bottom of the TV and has great sound.  The Samsung speaker is invisible, pointing down under the frame.  The sales guy at Circuit City said the sound is better with the Sony.  Don't know if he's right, I didn't study it, but I have no regrets about my choice.

The final tech treat:  When we set up the ATT U-verse, my Logitech Click optical mouse stopped working.  I thought the software had gotten corrupted.  Reloaded that after changing the batteries.  The control panel said it was working fine...except that it wasn't working at all.  Finally, I threw my hands up in the air and called tech support.  Not only did the tech talk me through the step-by-step troubleshooting, when we couldn't get it to work, she said "maybe it's under warranty."  "No way," said I, "I've had it forever."  She said she'd check, and when she came back, she said there was a 5-year warranty, and that it was covered.  They sent me a new mouse in a couple of weeks, simplest installation ever, NO charge whatsoever.  So if you want mouse or keyboard technology, go with Logitech.  I was extremely pleased (and, therefore, extremely surprised!)

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Finally, your moment of Zen:

Bill-Bored? No Longer!

Normally, I am anti-billboard.  I think they clutter up our highways and make everything ugly.  I know...they bring in revenue.  I am usually happy to see those with quotes from George Carlin that dot U.S.1...they make me think and laugh.  Better still are those that are only on the internet.

Dee Ray sent us a bunch of billboards.  They are all Photoshopped, but hilarious.  Compliments of Dribbleglass and Worth.  I just spent a half-hour at Dribbleglass browsing their trivia, funny pictures and billboards section. A half-hour I can scarcely spare, since I am preposting this on Thanksgiving so that when I go to Melissa's wedding, I won't have to find time to blog.  I wound up saving it to my favorites.

Worth 1000--one picture is worth 1000 words--is perhaps the best Photoshop site, full of contests and amazing pictures.  Some serious gross-out Thanksgiving photos, if you're in the mood for roast long pig.

Meanwhile, check out the stuff below, and link to those sites, but be prepared to get lost for a long time.

My So-Called (Unexamined) Life

I was recently at Everything and Nothing, and noticed that Shawn had taken The Unexamined Life Test.

Poor Shawn.  She only scored 53% (that's an "F", isn't it?).   She must have been having a bad day.  It did say she is 99% self aware, so I guess that's a bit of balm on the wound.

I decided that I, self-examiner and autoflaggelator that I am would do pretty well.

Here's how it came out:

"Your score:  oblivious"

I am 26% self-aware.

and:

"you scored higher than    0%  on self-awareness."

OK, it would be pretty hard to score lower that 0%, n'est-ce pas?

I have to say, in my own defense, that there were no good fits to the choices of answers after any of the questions.  Of course, I knew which the touchy-feely "right answers" were, but didn't select them.

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living.  I guess this confirms that mine might not be either.

However, I have no intention of taking hemlock, as he does in this painting by Jacques-Louis David.

Dine.com

Next time you travel to a new city, you can go to Dine.com to find restaurant reviews submitted by eaters like you.  There are almost 300,000 reviews of almost 200,000 restaurants, so you're sure to find something you like.

The downside?  They don't have my favorite special occasion restaurant, Matthew's listed.  So not all restaurants make the guide.  It just gives you a selection to choose from so at least it won't be awful.

Here's the review for our local Ruth's Chris Steak House.  There's probably one near you as well.  A fair variety of comments, a couple of dissenters, but the most recent is from almost a year ago.

Still, try it.  Knowledge is power.

[Image from Matthew's from blogs.move.com]

FBL

What a great idea.  The Foundation for a Better Life.  A non-profit organization founded in 2002 to promote a series of values widely held to be universal in this country.  Like truth, hard work, commitment, sacrifice.

A little (very little) futher investigation made me say "whoa".  The foundation is funded by billionaire Philip Anschultz, the 31st richest man in the U.S.  His father and grandfather were very successful, and he expanded their fortunes with investments in oil, telecommunications, railroads, sports teams and media.

He is a strong supporter of conservative and Christian causes, and a staunch supporter of President G.W. Bush. 

In 1996, he founded Qwest telecommunications, a company that has been embroiled since in suits over slamming, insider trading and accounting scandals.  There were questions that in 1999-2001, Qwest might have assisted Enron in concealing losses. 

So while I like the billboards, I wonder what else I am supporting just by saying that.

Trust.  Verify.

Wait for the other shoe to drop.

[Thanks to L.C. for the link.]

How, Now?

How do you build an adobe wall?

How do you fry bacon?

Seal and stain a wood deck?

Change an electrical outlet?

With wikiHow, you can find out how to do all these things, start or edit articles, or just kill an afternoon clicking on the "Random Article" button:  How to pick a quality stock; How to use a French press (it's to make coffee...);buy and use an uninterruptible power supply; pack your bag before going into labor.  So much information I'll never use.

Unfortunately couldn't find out how to get wood borers out of oak trees.  If I find the answer maybe I'll do my own article.

Though I may never have to pack for labor, there is a wealth of information, must made for browsing on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or, better yet, for searching when you really do need to know something.

A search of "ballroom dancing" gives us such tips as how to fake ballroom dancing ability, learn pole dancing, and learn dancing from scratch in a month.  Here's a pretty good wiki on how to dance salsa.

Definitely a fun site, and useful too.  Thanks, L.C.!

[Image from WikiHow home page]

No Child Left Behind, Part Deux

There's been quite a bit of buzz about this lately:  OLPC, or One Laptop Per Child.

And what a laptop the XO is!  I'm thinking about jettisonning mine and getting one of these.

It's a rugged, innovative $100 computer.  And for some reason, for only two weeks in November (the 12th through the 26th), you can buy one and one gets given to a child in a third-world country.  For only $400.  Now, I don't quite get the math on this, but it's still a steal, even at $400.

The laptop has a solar cell which can be recharged many times, and a sealed keyboard (the CPU is in the screen) which can withstand dirt and water.

It has a mesh network which allows it to communicate with other XO's in the area, even if it's not on the internet.

I don't understand the technological aspects, so you should watch the video below to see the New York Times' David Pogue's lighthearted review and drop test of the XO.

Then consider getting one for a child you know, knowing you are also giving it to a child who needs it more.

Thanks to Stryder for the link.

Customize Your Vote

L.C. sent us this interesting quiz.  You answer a number of questions about current issues, and it ranks presidential candidates in the order in which their stands agree with yours.

The Select A Candidate Quiz was developed by Minnesota Public Radio.

Some of the questions required answers on issues that there are no good answers to.  And you had to indicate how important each issue was to you.

I was pretty surprised at how mine turned out:

Dennis Kucinich (D)
Bill Richardson (D)
Chris Dodd (D)
John Edwards (D)
Mike Gravel (D)
Joe Biden (D)
Hillary Clinton (D)
Barack Obama (D)
Mitt Romney (R)
Rudy Giuliani (R)
Sam Brownback (R)
Bill Gilmore (R)
Mike Huckabee (R)
Ron Paul (R)
Duncan Hunter (R)
Fred Thompson (R)
Tom Tancredo (R)
John McCain (R)

Some I've frankly never heard of.  I'd have expected myself to be aligned more closely with Hillary or Barack, and I've always liked Joe Biden.

You can go here to see the market values of individual Democratic candidates.  Woohoo, Al Gore's trading third.  If he were running, I'll bet it would be a lot higher. 

[Image from Pamela on Politics]

Oh, the Shame of it All!

There's a website dedicated to humiliating cats.  It's called Stuff on My Cat and it's photo after photo of cats in compromising positions, like the one with a mouse necktie.

And while some look content or just oblivious, it is obvious that some aren't so happy about the whole thing.

I know one thing for sure, my cats would never put up with it.

Check it out.  It's hilarious.

Cointreau Cooks

I found a lovely looking scallop dish in a Cointreau ad in Bon Appetit Magazine.  So I went to the Cointreau website to look for the recipe.  I love orange flavor with seafood, and the sweetness of the Cointreau would just glaze the scallop.  it should be delicious.

Interesting website.  Cointreau is an orange flavored liqueur.  I'd expect drink recipes, food pairings, beautiful girls.  Here are the subcategories on their site:

Dating
Cars
Entertainment
Eductation
Jobs
Finance
Internet
Electronics
Business
Travel
Legal

Nary a food or drink recipe to be had. Unfortunately, none of the links leads to anything.  They all say "Haven't found what you're looking for?  Then search here:_________."  So I searched "recipes" and got "Haven't found what you're looking for?  Then searach here:_________."

The site looks gorgeous, but no substance.  I guess they are still in the build phase.

Then I had the sense to look back at the ad, and the recipe is on the Bon Appetit site.

Here is Chef Richard Sandoval's recipe for Pan Seared Scallop with Cointreau Pickled Fennel and Cointreau Blood Orange Vinaigrette.

If I make this dish, it's gonna be more than one scallop, you betcha.

Cointreau Pickled Fennel Salad

1 medium sized bulb of fennel
3 fluid ounces white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 fluid ounce Cointreau
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1/4 cup carrot, julienned
1/4 cup green apple, julienned
1 tablespoon cilantro leaf finely chopped
1 tablespoon green onion (green only) thinly sliced

Cut fennel into quarters, top down and then front to back.  Remove the core of the fennel slicing diagonally with a knife.  Cutting across the fennel, thinly slice the entire bulb.  In a bowl, toss fennel with vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper, hold under refrigeration, tossing occasionally; have remaining ingredients ready in a separate bowl.  Marinate for oune hour, strain, and add remaining ingredients to fennel, toss, set aside.

Cointreau Blood Orange Vinaigrette

2 fluid ounces of Cointreau
2 fluid ounces white vinegar
2 each blood oranges (substitute regular oranges if necessary)
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon mustard
2 fluid ounces canola oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1/2 serrano pepper, finely chopped

Zest 1 blood orange and place zest into a small sauce pan with vinegar and honey, bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Peel both blood oranges, remove segments from one, set aside.  Squeeze excess juice from remaining orange into a small mixing bowl, discard orange.  Combine with orange juice the vinegar mixture, mustard , lemon juice, shallot, and serrano.  Mix well.  Emulsify oil into orange/vinegar mixture by whisking this mixture and slowly pouring in oil.  Hold under refrigeration.

Scallops and Bacon

4 strips bacon
4 each U10 Diver Scallops Dry Pack
1/4 cup canola oil

Bake bacon at 350 degrees until brown and cooked.  Rough chop.  Rinse scallops, dry with napkin, season with salt and pepper.  In a medium saute pan, place oil and heat to medium high heat.  Add scallops and pan fry until brown on each side (if they darken quickly, turn down the heat.)

Divide the salad onto 4 plates, top salad with scallop.  Garnish plates with blood orange segments and chopped bacon.

Serves 4