Have a mission...

thanks (_chloedancer)

Louis in the sky with diamonds...

Superflat First Love by Takashi Murakami, Full Version

Seeing with photographer's eyes...

Pocket Camera Retro Wednesday #4

My typo love...

Paper cut typography made by Julene

Milestone(d)

The previous post was my 1,111th

Useful measures of conversion...

Respectfully stolen from my Slackware Linux Fortune program ...

---

1 Billion dollars of budget deficit = 1 Gramm-Rudman
6.023 x 10 to the 23rd power alligator pears = Avocado's number
2 pints = 1 Cavort
Basic unit of Laryngitis = The Hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
6 Curses = 1 Hexahex
3500 Calories = 1 Food Pound
1 Mole = 007 Secret Agents
1 Mole = 25 Cagey Bees
1 Dog Pound = 16 oz. of Alpo
1000 beers served at a Twins game = 1 Killibrew
2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League
2000 pounds of chinese soup = 1 Won Ton
10 to the minus 6th power mouthwashes = 1 Microscope
Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier = 1 Machturtle
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
365 Days of drinking Lo-Cal beer. = 1 Lite-year
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton
to 1 meter per second
One half large intestine = 1 Semicolon
10 to the minus 6th power Movie = 1 Microfilm
1000 pains = 1 Megahertz
1 Word = 1 Millipicture
1 Sagan = Billions & Billions
1 Angstrom: measure of computer anxiety = 1000 nail-bytes
10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone
10 to the 6th power Bicycles = 2 megacycles
The amount of beauty required launch 1 ship = 1 Millihelen

Wordsmith Extraodinaire

Spiff recommends...

Her point is...

Jennifer Maestre

Thanks /ambivalence

Lay down low and stand up swinging....

...land on me with both feet...HARD!

Let me just save...

...up enough of it so I can give it away.


. . .

Thoughts on Google's Wave

Disclaimer 1: I drank the Google Kool-aid a long time ago...

Disclaimer 2: The extent of my knowledge about Google Wave comes from the 1:20 video presentation seen at wave.google.com

1. Unlike some other social media critics I am IMPRESSED! Having few preconceptions and very little expectations I was simply blown away by the forward thinking of the Wave team.
   
2. My personal yardstick in matters of software/application tools: Does the tool meet the hand. To this I say a resounding "Yes!"

Observations:

The evolution of the Internet or any technology for that matter is not defined by desires or expectations. The evolution of technology is defined by on-the-ground, in-the-moment, proven achievements. Pundits all too often predicate their views and criticisms on their personal "vapor-ware" preferences as opposed to the existing, working, less-than-perfect real-ware tools offered in real-time.

New Word Order

Written On The City

Roasted Potato Salad... (Part 2 - The Eating)

There is something about simple potato salad. The creamy texture of the mayo, the bite of the mustard, the crunch of celery and the bright highlight of the onion all surrounding - in this case - the body of roasted potato cubes. With that last element the salad went from elegantly simple to simply elegant.

Now, if I might, let me round out the epicurian picture.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

I removed the "silver film" from the pork tenderloin (the smaller cut, 1 - 1.5 lbs) and then tied it into a pinwheel. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste then seared on all "sides" in 2 tbls of olive oil in a smoking hot cast iron skillet.

Once the browning is complete then cover the pork loin with strips of hickory smoked bacon. The bacon does three important things for this meal. First, it is a 'moisturizer' for the little roast. Second, it is a cooking indicator. I know I will be taken to task for saying this but, "when the bacon is done, the pork loin is done" (Yeah, I am one of those that prefers pork done. Sorry.)

Finally, the third and perhaps most important reason for the bacon is to compliment the potato salad.

So, in presentation there are three slight slices of roasted pinwheel pork loin opposite a serving of cold roasted potato salad married together with a strip of chrisp bacon.

Enjoy...

Roasted Potato Salad...

This will be an experiment in cross culinary thinking... so here goes.

I pealed and cubed a mess (4 medium & 5 small) russet potatoes. Then parboiled them, just a little too long but we will see. I had intended to only bring them to a boil and then stop but... distracted folding laundry. Subject to my own criticism - cooking is a full time, full attention activity.

I thooroughly drained and tossed the cubes with a mixture of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed dried rosemary, a sprinkling of marjoram and a touch of red pepper flake. I added a little more olive oil and then spread the cubes onto a stick resistant baking sheet. Popped the whole thing into a 325 F oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.

Turned them gently, still soft, due to being over parboiled. I will have to watch that next time.

Second turning begins to show a little body to the cubes. No color yet.

Like the Emril Lagassi fellow is fond of saying, I wish you could have Smell-o-vision ... just the scent of these roasting potatoes is to die for. Now I am torn. Just a second...

Third turn - cubes are now quite firm and beginning to show a haze of that GBD color (Golden Brown Delicious).

So I am torn... and so here is my resolve. I will divide this nearly 6 cups of cubes and only make potato salad with half of them. Just have to eat the rest of them straight up...maybe...

decisions...decisions...

We are all children of the digital age...

... it is just that some of us have more analog baggage than others.

My overgrown field is not empty!

I would call it more lazy than green. I stopped mowing the majority of our 1.58 acre parcel some time ago. It actually started out of boredom. I was bored with mowing a 1.58 acre short grass fairway. Open Mowing sums it up rather well...

This morning while I was out assessing the state of our poison ivy patch I saw a devastating sight. I cursed. I swore. My heart wept at the sight. Some lowlife careless human being had thoughtlessly driven their automobile across a section of my unmowed (unmown ?) yard. Worse still they flattened a 3 year old White Pine.

This isn't just any White Pine. This isn't a nursery 3 year old. No, this is a grown from a single twiglette sapling planted by my own hands White Pine. One of the few that we could find again after the grass grew tall at summer's end. One of the fewer still that survived not only the first winter but the second which included a wicked ice storm. Now to be laid low by some careless person who could not see that my overgrown field is not empty.

Cast Iron perspectives...

Carrying a 10" cast iron skillet full of boiling water from the stove to the sink offered a clear lesson: keep the water level. It is not about carrying the pan level. It is about keeping the boiling water calm and level.

Building a structure on a hillside might require extreme architectural measure but it can all be overcome by keeping the contained space level and calm.

A potter seeking to throw a utilitarian vessel must keep the contained space level and calm.

In personal relationships no matter how jagged and acute the angles one's heart must remain level and calm.

Don't watch this video... it will only confuse you.

For everyone else there's...

Thanks to

The Linux and Unix Menagerie