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I don't post about politics often -- there's no point, really, because nobody cares what I think or anyone else, for that matter ... nevertheless, I think this might be the best thing I've read about politics in a long, long time.

tomato II

tomato II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

This story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine is a fascinating read about food, why Americans are fatter than ever, and the difference between nutrition and "nutritionism." It's fascinating precisely because it takes apart the science of food and shows that what works in the laboratory might not necessarily work in the kitchen.

One thing that jumped out at me is the discussion of what makes up "culture" for many of us. The author's parenthetical thesis:

Of course when it comes to food, culture is really just a fancy word for Mom, the figure who typically passes on the food ways of the group — food ways that, although they were never “designed” to optimize health (we have many reasons to eat the way we do), would not have endured if they did not keep eaters alive and well.

Isn't that the truth? What we learn about food usually comes from our mothers. My lovely wife makes a tasty treat that she calls "cheese crisps" -- basically shredded cheese on a flour tortilla, melted in the oven -- that go great with sliced apples. And recently she made her mom's chili recipe, which was far more involved than the one my mom used -- and it came out just about the same.

Most people think their mothers are fantastic cooks, and most people are probably right. One thing my mom taught me was that food is a fantastic way to express love. Conversely, one can love someone too much, until the loved one can't fit into his/her pants any longer. Not that that ever happened to me, of course ... :)

more snowdog II

more snowdog II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I'm sitting in the Denver airport, watching snow fall gently on the tarmac, happy that I got standby on an earlier flight back home.

I came into Denver for a two-hour meeting with an important client, then stayed the night because there weren't any flights that worked for me on a Friday night back home ... so I spent the night and was planning to get a good night's sleep, hop on an 11 a.m. flight and be home by 3 p.m.

Instead, my lungs and nasal passages decided that I really wanted to stay awake all night long, cough up phlegm and watch several airings of really bad Time-Life Music infomercials (for the record, Air Supply hawking light rock, and Glen Campbell shilling Country Love Songs).

Things you think about a 4 a.m. once you've realized you're not going back to sleep:

-- All the IT nerds at dinner last night were home beer brewers; I'm scheduled to join their ranks in a few weeks, but now I'm not so sure

-- Why is Nicolas Cage allowed to make movies anymore?

-- Those Time-Life bastards didn't include my favorite Hollies song ("The Air That I Breathe")

-- And, by the way, it's the same song as "Creep" by Radiohead

-- Even though they say it every time I walk into one, it's most decidedly not a great day at most Fairfield Inns

-- Yes, my mother actually called me a prick when I was 14

orton 2

orton 2, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I came across a website that showed a very convoluted way to do what is known as the "Orton Effect," which is basically showing something (usually a flower) as being both incredibly in focus, and somewhat out of focus, at the same time.

I always thought it was some camera trick I'd never figure out ... turns out it's (like most things) a technology trick. Orton originally took two shots of the same thing, overexposed and didn't focus one, and then overlaid the two as slides. The technology solution involves two layers in Photoshop, some Gaussian blur and a very soft, very large eraser.

I need to find some other flower shots and start experimenting -- I'm not thrilled with this one, but it's a good first try.

peanut butter blossoms

peanut butter blossoms, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I'm watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on HBO ... and it dovetails nicely with an email my friend Chrissy ¹ sent to me -- a contest from the Washington Post, in which people are asked to describe their favorite movie, and why ...

I may or may not send this in.

***

The first time I saw "Rushmore" I cried. The next three times (that same week) I was speechless.

"Rushmore" made sense to me; like Max, I lived more in my mind than the world, and when confronted with banal reality, I was very talented at retreating inside further.

At one point Max says to Mr. Blume (Bill Murray) about their shared love interest, Ms. Cross, that "she was my Rushmore." This movie was my college years; I could tell friends "This is what it felt like."

When Max and Ms. Cross dance at the end, it was my "unrequited crush fantasy" in celluloid -- the music, scene, even the film speed (of course my fantasies have a framerate). Everything was exactly as I'd have done it ... except, of course, I never did.

Max finally got his to work, if only for one song. I wish I'd been that lucky.

***

¹I knew her as "Chrissy" but her email comes in as "Christina," which leads to the question -- what's the controlling legal authority for names? What you knew someone as 10 years ago, or their self-chosen email name?

say carrot!

say carrot!, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I think I want to be a photographer.

Not that I'm not already -- I heard my wife say "My husband is a photographer" on the phone the other day -- but I want to make money at it. Maybe not a ton, but definitely something that can supplement my current "income," such as it is.

What I don't understand is (1) the business model, and (2) setting up a home studio. All those little things like lighting, strobes/flashes, proper camera backs, etc, are totally foreign to me because I've never been around a studio before.

And the business model is a bit tough for me as well, as I don't understand how one makes money at it. I'm sure it can be done, but until someone shows me I don't know that I could "get" it correct.

All I know is that I love taking pictures, and I think I've got a pretty good eye for what makes a nice picture.

So this year's goal, besides running a 10K or two, is to be making some meager income by photography by Christmas.

Stay tuned.

happy birthday to you ...

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

It's my lovely wife's birthday -- 34, I think, though she might yell at me for disclosing state secrets like that. :)

ps the Word Verification to post: eaulve. Yes, eaulve me and eyelve you ...

dirkus

dirkus, originally uploaded by pr9000.

My lovely wife is sick.

Not just "sniffles" sick, but "raging fever" sick. In a few more days, she'll have full-blown bubonic plague. I'm really worried about her, especially because tomorrow is her birthday and we normally celebrate "birthday week" -- except this week she's been sick. I feel sorry for her.

***

I'm watching "Office Space" and this line just resonated with me:

PETER
The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's just that I just don't
care.

BOB PORTER
Don't, don't care?

PETER
It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now, if I work my ass off and
Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So where's
the motivation? And here's another thing, Bob. I have eight different
bosses right now!

BOB SLYDELL
I beg your pardon?

PETER
Eight bosses.

BOB SLYDELL
Eight?

PETER
Eight, bob. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different
people coming by to tell me about it. That's my real motivation - is
not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job, but y'know, Bob,
it will only make someone work hard enough not to get fired.

poor miss eliza day ...

poor miss eliza day ..., originally uploaded by pr9000.

my manager kind of threw me under the bus today on a conference call, then made a point to call me after to apologize, and explain his reasoning -- which was valid and understandable, though not exactly heartwarming.

i don't blog about my job, because it's just not worth the risk, and because it has more drama than my last job but only a tiny fraction of the total employees -- so if it's found out, it's found out ... whereas at target, the risk of discovery was much, much lower.

***

It snowed last night -- one of those nice, quiet snows that leaves a blanket of fluffy cotton all over the ground. And as I sit here in the late-afternoon twilight, the sun is giving everything an orange and blue glow. It's days like these that make me like winter.

Of course, having Mr. Plow visit your driveway in the morning makes it that much easier to take.

That Mr. Plow ... he's a loser, and I think he is a boozer. So call KL5-4796!

barkley II

barkley II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Thank goodness it snowed tonight ... at least three inches. Now I can run Trotter out on the lake -- we tried it today on Lake Minnewashta, and the poor guy couldn't get any footing. At one point he turned around and looked at me as if to say "You've got to be kidding, right?"

***

Earlier in the week, I wrote:

My picks for this weekend's NFL extravaganza: NE over SD; IND over BAL; NO over PHI; CHI and SEA are a push.

And lookee what! New England was a hard-luck winner ... Manning and the Colts continue to cut that meat ... Nawlins beat the Iggles ... and the Bears and 'Hawks went to overtime, with the Bears winning. I was 3 for 3 -- 4 for 4 if you count my chickenshit "maybe both, who knows?" pick in Chicago.

For next weekend, I like IND over NE definitely; I think CHI can beat NO, but I'll need to think about that one a bit before making up my mind.

***

I started using Quicken 2007, in Parallels, tonight, and had a little flashback to 2000, when I was running 998 Productions out of my bedroom and had to learn the intricacies of Quickbooks Pro. The only hard part of it was doing the "split" on all checks -- categorizing the amount paid into different areas ... some were easy, like phone bills and utilities, but the hard one always was my AmEx, because I did almost everything on my AmEx.

Well, we do a lot on one of our cards, and I split that one this evening. It took me almost 45 minutes to do it ... but it's one of my 2006 LifeGoals™ to get a handle on where the money goes, and why. Soon I'll have all sorts of nerdy pie charts and line graphs (or pie graphs and line charts, whatever) to show my lovely wife.

What color in the pie should I make "crap we buy that we don't exactly need?" ...

suspension bridge II

suspension bridge II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I spent hours and hours getting this photo just right, because it's two shots stitched together in Photoshop. My smallest lens wasn't wide enough to get the whole bridge in one shot, and after my wife got me a kick-ass tripod for Christmas, I was finally able to get a decent night shot with my D70.

I went to Wheeling Island -- not usually a good idea in daylight, and never one after dark -- and hung out in some rest home's back yard, trying not to get kicked out by security (I'd already been approached by the good people of Wackenhut Security while taking this shot). Nobody came to bother me -- a strange man, in a backyard on Wheeling Island at night? Must be business as usual! -- and I managed to get off some nice, long-exposure shots. I think this one is made up of a six-second exposure on the left, and a four-second exposure on the right.

I'd done an earlier version and kept obsessing on how the cables on the left weren't matching. I spent hours and hours trying to get them to line up, resizing, angling ... nothing worked.

Yesterday, I had a brainstorm -- don't be a moron and spend hours with little lines. Use all of the photo on the left, and just match up the right at the other side of the shore. So I used that "Marsh Wheeling Stogies" sign as a guide, and it took me about 30 minutes to finish up.

I like the shot(s). Reminds me of what the bridge looked like that night, which is all I can ask for, I guess.

suspension bridge II

suspension bridge II, originally uploaded by pr9000.

lombard

lombard, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Apple released a phone. Their stock jumped; Palm and the Blackberry company both dropped.

We haven't seen it yet, we don't know any facts about some key features (can you install your own software? what kind of OS is really under the hood?) ... and yet Apple stock soars.

I think Fake Steve had it right: "I really do think I'm descended from Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The resemblance is just too strong to be ignored."

***

My picks for this weekend's NFL extravaganza: NE over SD; IND over BAL; NO over PHI; CHI and SEA are a push. In fact, so might NO/PHI as well. And I don't know that Manning can beat BAL's D. And come to think of it, I really want SD to win this game.

So forget I said anything.

***

I'm watching some contrived ESPN show about the 40 minutes that define the Super Bowl, and they're focusing on the 1991 SB where Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem (and where "Scott Norwood" became an insult for the ages). I didn't get to see that game, because I did my first radio show on WDUB that evening -- some senior DJ didn't want to do his time slot. It was probably the best show I ever did; I chased that performance for three more years ... and I got out in time to see Norwood shank that kick. All in all, it was a good day.

They just showed Bart Oates talking about that kick, and it reminded me of one of my favorite "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" episodes. And now they're talking about bad halftime shows, which reminds me of Homer yelling out " This sucks. Come on, snipers, where are you!" in "Lisa the Greek.

crab IV

crab IV, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I've been a bit crabby over the past few days.

Not sure why, to be honest -- nothing is really bothering me, outside of the usual work-exercise-housecleaning trifecta. I've been snappy with my lovely wife, with my dog and cats ...

Wait. Maybe it's the exercise. Four times in the past week, twice with weights. I think my body is telling my mood "Act the way I feel" and I'm just being a bastard to everyone.

Hence, this will be a short post.

Oh, and OSU sucking ass isn't helping. :(

Pam and Tony Romo

Long weekend ... so for my required post, I present:

Pam and Tony Romo, originally uploaded by pr9000.

it's not mine, but i wish it were.

no blog post today

100_3889, originally uploaded by beths96.

weekends = omnibus post

president taft

president taft, originally uploaded by pr9000.

We watched "Dick" this evening. It was a favorite of mine when it came out back in '99; my wife says it's because it has a real "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" feel to it ... two very attractive, not-very-booksmart blondes and how they interact with the real world.

"Dick" had that, and it was made by someone who really knew the arcana of Watergate. I had to pause it several times to fill my wife in on some of the more arcane aspects of the scandal -- not just the 18-minute gap in the tapes, but the allusion to the Saturday Night Massacre, Butterfield's almost-accidental disclosure of the taping system, and the rivalry between Woodward and Bernstein. This just goes to prove that I should have been a virgin well into my 30s.

here's a truck stop instead of st. peter's

swasey, originally uploaded by pr9000.

blasts from the past, circa 1992:

Driving home from the mall (how suburban of me) the local "alt-rock" station played "man on the moon" from R.E.M's "Automatic for the People" and without realizing it, I found myself quietly singing along to the chorus.

In the fall of 1992, I was a junior at Denison University. Taking up my time were (1) my position as a student adviser, and (2) being a DJ at WDUB, Denison's 100-watt FM radio station, doing (if I recall) two shows -- one with "regular" music, and the other featuring all Beatles. "Sitting on a Cornflake," I called it, and just typing those words trigger goosebumps down the side of my neck ... it was corny, it was pretentious, but it was fun, and it was the only show I ever did that got regular listeners.

I borrowed "Automatic" from the station -- this was long before the days of ripping CDs, back when an 80 MB Syquest disk was hot shit -- and let it sit on my counter for a week before I was willing to listen to it. I'd just been introduced to R.E.M. my freshman year and loved "Out of Time" but this one scared me, because the first single, "Drive," was moody and dark -- which "Out of Time" most definitely was not -- and I didn't understand it terribly well.

But I finally gave it a listen, and ... well, I don't think I played anything else for two solid months. I got the goosebumps because of that -- all the events and people tied to that disc make it impossible for me to listen to nowadays. I don't think I've heard it more than twice through since 1994. My good friend Adam had a theory about the negative effects of revisiting music that stirs up too much nostalgia. I thought it was bunk when he told me, but I realize now that I was having too much fun living in the past that way, so: Adam -- you were right.

"Monster" came out in 1994, "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" in 1996, "Up" in 1998, and "Reveal" in 2001. I was sitting in a restaurant in Evanston, Illinois, with my lovely wife, and we'd just purchased "Reveal." The cast on my leg, and the crutches I used to get around downtown Evanston, made me realize that you could tie almost every momentous event of my life to that point around some R.E.M. album's release.

To wit:

-- my first big crush in college ("Out of Time")
-- my junior year ("Automatic for the People")
-- my first job and first new car (I got out of work early my second day at the paper to go get "Monster"(
-- moving to Chicago, sans job (one month before "New Adventures in Hi-Fi")
-- first job in IT (same week that "Up" was released -- "Daysleeper" is the first thing I remember hearing, in mono, through Targetcom's office phone system)
-- surgery for my broken ankle ("Reveal")
-- I have nothing for "Around the Sun," really -- maybe I could stretch something, but why break a good, useless theory with facts?

So here we are in 2006, and I don't listen to R.E.M. much anymore. I think the presidential election really keeps me from listening to them or Springsteen. I don't mind that artists have political opinions; it just so happens that, at that time and even somewhat today, I don't share them. Which is fine, I guess ... but the vehemence of their opinions, the vitriol that poured out, and the abject, brazen campainging for Kerry left me alienated a bit from whatever their art is trying to say.

I don't listen to them much, but it's kind of fun to do my Elvis impression during "Man on the Moon" ...

avocado salad

avocado salad, originally uploaded by pr9000.

There are "weeknight meals" and "weekend meals" -- some meals are simple fare, made quickly after a long day of work. others are elaborate, thought out, maybe even fancy schmancy dining events.

It's Wednesday, and we had a "weekend meal" tonight.

We'd gotten some good kabob meat at Byerly's for New Year's Eve, and it was far more than either of us could eat. So we saved the leftovers ... and decided to change it up a bit and make steak sandwiches.

I got a loaf of "artisan" french bread ("artisan" = "not sliced") and made toast on the griddle by coating the bread in butter and olive oil -- just one side, because while it's on the heat, I use my grill press to mash the bread into about a third of its original thickness. Then I coat the cool side, flip and repeat.

We sliced the steak into strips, then warmed it up on the griddle for a second, as well as some sliced portabello mushrooms we'd grilled on NYE. We took the toast and coated one side liberally with Boursin cheese, then constructed the tastiest steak sandwiches ever made.

We'd also made the fluffiest mashed potatoes for NYE, and heated them up as well. My wife's secret ingredient -- whipping cream instead of milk.

Tonight, she made "asparagus fries" by roasting asparagus tips in olive oil and fresh parmesan, until the veggies were shriveled and crispy.

So ... steak and mushroom sandwiches with homemade toast and herbed cream cheese, amazingly fluffy mashed potatoes, and asparagus fries.

Then came dessert.

Fresh strawberries, with some homemade whipped cream (she didn't use the whole pint in the potatoes, thank goodness), served on top Cointreau dessert cake slices.

This was so good we're going to roll it out for our next dinner party.

to paul from grandma, 1972

to paul from grandma, 1972, originally uploaded by pr9000.

That's an ornament my Grandma Ruth got my first Christmas.

When we were home for Christmas last week, I loved to look at Mom's tree -- It's cool that she puts up so many sentimental ornaments every year ... there were some others I found that I'd forgotten about, such as "Black Santa" -- a Santa ornament made on dark wood; whoever made it didn't paint his face, so St. Nick appears to be Shaft at Christmas. There's also "Camel Claus," which is one of those little triangular things with two wiggly toy eyes -- if you pinch his cheeks, his mouth opens up, and you can put a Hershey's Kiss inside. Except my dad put in a cigarette one year, and it made my sister, Beth, just explode with anger.

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Mom always decorates the mantle; those two alabaster angels were made by her sister/my aunt Evelyn when I was in middle school. Mom used to go off and do her Christmas shopping, and leave me in charge of Beth. I'd grab the little Lego space men and turn off all the lights in the house except the mantle and the tree, and I'd pretend that my living room was a huge space dock for the USS Enterprise. I still get a small urge to buy some Lego space men around Thanksgiving ...

***

Right now we're a TV-less household, as we told DirecTV to shove it earlier today after the latest customer service screwup with our DVR. We demanded to be released from our contract, which (to their credit) they did with little resistance. Only then did we think "What will our alternative be?" -- which is not exactly Negotiating 101, but hey, you do things in the heat of the moment and you live with the consequences.

After some research, we decided that the local cable monopoly can suck our collective ... uh, toes ... and we went with Dish Network. They seem to be giving away HD packages right now, which is very nice -- we can get the same channels, almost the same DVR packages, free HBO for three months, and only pay about 70 percent of what we were giving those assholes at DirecTV.

I'll miss the NFL Sunday Ticket next year; I can only hope Sen. Specter (R-PA) continues to rattle the NFL's cage sufficiently to allow the league to let everyone sell the Sunday Hit O' the Crackpipe.

***

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

These Christmas shots were taken with my D70, and I've finally started to explore settings beyond the "Auto" dial. I'm having more fun with the camera now.

a new year

, originally uploaded by pr9000.

a new year means more posting. or at least that's what i'm promising myself -- one per day, rain or shine.

this will count for the first one.