Thursday, June 11, 2009
What we blog and what we tweet has been confused
Because some of the Posnicks still care about blogging (instead of, say, Twitter), I wanted to point everyone to Sheryl's new running playlist blog, Finest Runsongs.
Friday, March 13, 2009
What is suck it, Ken Jennings?
Sheryl raised an intriguing question tonight when she asked whether we liked Larissa Kelly more than Obama. The answer, we decided, was yes.
She's back on the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions after ten long months, and the Posnick household was in a tizzy. Alex laid off on the lechery tonight but, and pardon the spoiler alert, it looks like he'll be getting another chance in the finals.
Oh, and she got the question about Google right. It's like she knows me!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The streak lives
Looking back on my blog's archives, I'm surprised and impressed to see that I've managed to post at least once per month, every month, since March of 2003. I have a few posts saved in draft that I have trouble motivating myself to finish, but I do want to get something up for February 2009. I don't want to resort to writing a script to automatically convert each of my tweets into a blog entry. That would be cheating.
Of course what I'm going to do instead, which is respond to a personal email with a blog entry, is probably cheating too.
Our friends Haley and Gabe came over sometime last month for dinner, and I made a chestnut soup and shepherd's pie. The soup was mostly just this recipe from the Minimalist and was a good way to use a packet of vacuum-sealed chestnuts from Trader Joe's leftover from Thanksgiving.
The shepherd's pie was something special, and something that I need to make again. It's a little too fussy for an everyday dinner, but it's more time consuming than difficult to prepare. Haley recently wrote me to ask for the recipe, so here's what I can recall doing. Don't worry too much about the proportions of the ingredients, and since the four of us finished it all in one sitting, I guess it makes four servings.
You'll need:
(Peel and) halve your pearl onions, peel and chop the carrots into good sized carrot pieces, and add both of those ingredients along with the frozen peas into the pan. There should be enough fat to handle the vegetables, but add some olive oil if need be. Sauté until the carrots are fairly soft, and things start to brown up.
Add the lamb back to the pan along with maybe half a cup of chicken broth–you don't want it too soupy though.
Although I didn't mention it before, it turns out that while you were doing all the previous steps you had a big pot of salted water boiling, and you added the potatoes to the pot (peels on or off). Actually, since I think you really need at least thirty minutes of constant boiling to get potatoes soft enough to mash, you should have done this part first. Once the potatoes are cooked through (slip a knife through them to test), take them out of the water and place them in a large mixing bowl. Gabe will not tolerate lactose, so I mashed them with chicken stock instead of milk to smooth them out, and they tasted great. Add salt and pepper to taste while mashing.
So now you have a bowl of hopefully enough mashed potatoes to cover the pan full of the meat and veg. Use a spatula-type thing to thickly coat the top of the mixture all the way across with mashed potatoes. It's like frosting a meat cake. Definitely try to get a complete coat, so that the steam from the chicken stock doesn't escape and instead helps all the veg finish cooking while it's in the oven.
And into the oven it will go, at say 375 degree for around 30 minutes. The deciding factor as to when it's done is basically the color of the potatoes on the top–cook it as long as you're willing to wait while making sure that the potatoes get golden without burning.
And then eat. You might want to take a picture of it first, which I unfortunately neglected to do.
But seriously, Trader Joe's.
Of course what I'm going to do instead, which is respond to a personal email with a blog entry, is probably cheating too.
Our friends Haley and Gabe came over sometime last month for dinner, and I made a chestnut soup and shepherd's pie. The soup was mostly just this recipe from the Minimalist and was a good way to use a packet of vacuum-sealed chestnuts from Trader Joe's leftover from Thanksgiving.
The shepherd's pie was something special, and something that I need to make again. It's a little too fussy for an everyday dinner, but it's more time consuming than difficult to prepare. Haley recently wrote me to ask for the recipe, so here's what I can recall doing. Don't worry too much about the proportions of the ingredients, and since the four of us finished it all in one sitting, I guess it makes four servings.
You'll need:
- A solid 12" skillet. I used a cast-iron one, but I can't recommend buying cast iron unless you're prepared to take care of it properly.
- Around a pound and a half of ground lamb. I'd go with lamb over beef here.
- 6 normal sized carrots. I used multi-colored carrots from a bag I bought (at Trader Joe's), but I haven't seen them there again.
- A cup or so of peas. Frozen peas are your best bet, even if you don't get them from Trader Joe's.
- Some pearl onions. I got them in a vacuum pack from... did I mentioned there's a Trader Joe's down the street from my apartment?
- 6 big, preferably starchy, potatoes.
- Around a pint of chicken broth (Trader Joe's low-sodium chicken broth all the way).
- Seasonings.
(Peel and) halve your pearl onions, peel and chop the carrots into good sized carrot pieces, and add both of those ingredients along with the frozen peas into the pan. There should be enough fat to handle the vegetables, but add some olive oil if need be. Sauté until the carrots are fairly soft, and things start to brown up.
Add the lamb back to the pan along with maybe half a cup of chicken broth–you don't want it too soupy though.
Although I didn't mention it before, it turns out that while you were doing all the previous steps you had a big pot of salted water boiling, and you added the potatoes to the pot (peels on or off). Actually, since I think you really need at least thirty minutes of constant boiling to get potatoes soft enough to mash, you should have done this part first. Once the potatoes are cooked through (slip a knife through them to test), take them out of the water and place them in a large mixing bowl. Gabe will not tolerate lactose, so I mashed them with chicken stock instead of milk to smooth them out, and they tasted great. Add salt and pepper to taste while mashing.
So now you have a bowl of hopefully enough mashed potatoes to cover the pan full of the meat and veg. Use a spatula-type thing to thickly coat the top of the mixture all the way across with mashed potatoes. It's like frosting a meat cake. Definitely try to get a complete coat, so that the steam from the chicken stock doesn't escape and instead helps all the veg finish cooking while it's in the oven.
And into the oven it will go, at say 375 degree for around 30 minutes. The deciding factor as to when it's done is basically the color of the potatoes on the top–cook it as long as you're willing to wait while making sure that the potatoes get golden without burning.
And then eat. You might want to take a picture of it first, which I unfortunately neglected to do.
But seriously, Trader Joe's.
Monday, January 5, 2009
2008 Movie Roundup (with spoilers!)
Here's list of all movies released in 2008, objectively ranked from best to worst. If your movie didn't make the list, either I didn't see it or something went terribly wrong.
- Milk (Spoiler alert: Use by March 4th. lolz!)
- Rachel Getting Married (Spoiler alert: The bride is having an affair with Don Draper! wtf‽)
- WALL-E (Spoiler alert: The portrayal of 22nd Century Earth's decay is probably overly optimistic. lolz!)
- Synecdoche, New York (Spoiler alert: Everyone dies eventually. lolz!)
- Religulous (Spoiler alert: Most religious claims are without a sound basis in reality. wtf‽)
- Tell No One (Spolier alert: lolz!)
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Spoiler alert: Woody Allen is going to keep putting Scarlett Johansson in movies until he can get her to take her top off. lolz!)
- Doubt (Spoiler alert: Life contains ambiguity. wtf‽)
- The Dark Knight (Spoiler alert: There's going to be another sequel. lolz!)
- Slumdog Millionaire (Spoiler alert: At the end, the brother is killed by symbolism. wtf‽)
- Vantage Point (Spoiler alert: Matthew Fox is the Vantage Point. wtf‽)
- The Wrestler
- Frost / Nixon
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Burn After Reading
- Gran Torino (Spoiler alert: Clint Eastwood hates Asians? wtf‽)
Friday, December 12, 2008
(You have no choice but to) Consider the Philosopher
So what exactly would it take to redeem the Times magazine from all those dreadful "Ethicist" and "Questions For..." columns (and get me blogging again in the process)? The list of things is quite short, but you'd better believe an essay about David Foster Wallace's undergraduate thesis on fatalism is near the top.
For what it's worth, trying to make a convincing argument for fatalism via semantics seems like a poor idea to begin with, so I'm not surprised that Foster Wallace was able to demonstrate how such an argument is flawed. And Foster Wallace doesn't weigh in on whether fatalism holds true in general, just on that specific argument for it.
For what it's worth, trying to make a convincing argument for fatalism via semantics seems like a poor idea to begin with, so I'm not surprised that Foster Wallace was able to demonstrate how such an argument is flawed. And Foster Wallace doesn't weigh in on whether fatalism holds true in general, just on that specific argument for it.
Monday, November 17, 2008
sudo reference 34
You'd think that if I only blogged when Randall Munroe referenced 34 (the number) in xkcd then that would not entail a lot of blogging. And it doesn't. What's surprising is that it entails any blogging at all, and yet it does.
(Hint: leave your mouse over the comic to get the tooltip-goodness.)
(Hint: leave your mouse over the comic to get the tooltip-goodness.)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Debate revelations
I'm not going to get into any post-debate analysis, other than to say that the folks we were watching the debate with (not surprisingly) thought Obama "won," but I thought there were two relevant revelations offered by the candidates that warrant some further consideration.
First, and least importantly, is Venezuela really a rogue state? Obama made that assertion, lumping it together with Iran. Hugo Chavez likes to run his mouth off against America and in all likelihood has offered material support to FARC rebels/terrorists in Colombia, but last I checked we're still buying oil from them at a record pace. Is that going to change with an Obama presidency?
Second, and most importantly, McCain flat out stated (twice!) that the United States has tortured prisoners under the Bush administration. Not "used enhanced interrogation techniques" against prisoners, but tortured them. Condeelzza Rice has just gone on the record by saying that she and other top-level Bush administration officials (Rumsfeld and Gonzales included) met to authorize these actions. If McCain (rightly) believes that the interrogation techniques amount to torture, would he advocate a war crimes tribunal investigating and prosecuting the officials who authorized them? And, for that matter, would Obama advocate that?
As an aside, check out election.twitter.com during the next debate. It's hypnotic to watch the tweets comes streaming in live, and I think it's a better source of a wider range of opinions during and after the debates than whoever the networks put on television.
First, and least importantly, is Venezuela really a rogue state? Obama made that assertion, lumping it together with Iran. Hugo Chavez likes to run his mouth off against America and in all likelihood has offered material support to FARC rebels/terrorists in Colombia, but last I checked we're still buying oil from them at a record pace. Is that going to change with an Obama presidency?
Second, and most importantly, McCain flat out stated (twice!) that the United States has tortured prisoners under the Bush administration. Not "used enhanced interrogation techniques" against prisoners, but tortured them. Condeelzza Rice has just gone on the record by saying that she and other top-level Bush administration officials (Rumsfeld and Gonzales included) met to authorize these actions. If McCain (rightly) believes that the interrogation techniques amount to torture, would he advocate a war crimes tribunal investigating and prosecuting the officials who authorized them? And, for that matter, would Obama advocate that?
As an aside, check out election.twitter.com during the next debate. It's hypnotic to watch the tweets comes streaming in live, and I think it's a better source of a wider range of opinions during and after the debates than whoever the networks put on television.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Un-suspending my blogage
Remember when delegates to the 2004 Republican National Convention wore purple heart band-aids on their faces to mock John Kerry? (Being a decorated Vietnam War hero was a liability when running for national office until just recently; you have to admire John McCain's timing.) I'm not advocating this, bu to do you think the nation would respond if Obama supporters started showing up to rallies wearing suspenders? Or if Friday night's debate were held between Barack Obama and a well-accessorized mannequin? I'm just throwing that out there.
If you haven't seen last night's Letterman, you really ought to.
If you haven't seen last night's Letterman, you really ought to.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Mom, dad: I'm tray.
I hated having to push carts of trays around while working at John Jay dining hall, and I like saving energy and food, so I can't say that I'm sad to hear that dining hall trays are on the outs. But what of the trayisms?
Friday, July 25, 2008
I don't feel good about this
Do I agree with David Denby's Batman: The Dark Knight review*? Yes. Also, two and a half hours?
*When I use the term review, I refer to the part of his writing in which he actually expresses an opinion or looks at the film with a critical eye. Invariably, this is about 10% of what he writes; the other 90% is just him recounting the plot.
*When I use the term review, I refer to the part of his writing in which he actually expresses an opinion or looks at the film with a critical eye. Invariably, this is about 10% of what he writes; the other 90% is just him recounting the plot.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Better than my video about electronic faxes
These videos of a talk Brian and I gave to some developers about the AdWords API are apparently causing quite a stir in the Internets (ed: this is not true). If you like Jeff'y but also like debugging SOAP calls, well, why settle for one or the other?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
How to Disappear Completely
Facebook laid the ontological smackdown on me yesterday. I was trying out one of Facebook's new features, importing RSS feeds into your Facebook activities feed, and apparently I tripped something on their end that got me flagged as a suspicious user. (I'm reposting my email to their tech support folks with more details below.) I'm like Richard Scoble, though cuter, and I didn't do anything stupid like try to scrape contact info.
I'm not too confident in getting a timely response from the normal support channels, but fortunately I know a few folks within the company and hopefully things will get sorted soon. One of the amusing things about getting my account suspended was that it generated not one but twenty identical emails from Facebook, sent within a short period of time, each reading "Your account has been disabled for persistent misuse of the site. Please contact disabled@facebook.com for more information." So Facebook apparently has some issues with throttling in their own anti-DoS notification system.
In the meantime, I flat out don't exist as far as Facebook is concerned. Sheryl is still listed as Married, though to no one in particular (getting your Facebook account suspended is not yet grounds for divorce; let's hope Prop. 24 doesn't pass this November). I'm still in a bunch of Facebook pictures, but all the tags pointing to me are gone (if Facebook had the Google engineering-fu they'd have blurred my face). And I don't show up in anyone's Friends list anymore, though no one received notification that I disappeared. My account's foreign key got just a tad more foreign, in the whole CIA-black-site-secret-prison kind of way.
Here's the email I sent to disabled@facebook.com:
Heyas,
So I was trying out the new mini-feed RSS feed importation, and I appear to have gotten my Facebook account suspended because of that. I'm not exactly sure how that happened. The first thing I tried to import was a Yahoo! Pipe aggregating all my various activities
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=9e9981b0b82d05688d040dce1e068306&_render=rss
This appeared to succeed and a new mini-feed entry was created saying that I had created 51 new stories, or something along those lines. (I certainly didn't want the 51 most recent things shared, and I wasn't given control over how many items got shared.)
This didn't look like it would be terribly useful, so I wanted to import my blog's feed instead. I didn't see any option to remove the previous Yahoo! Pipes feed, so I just entered the URL for my blog's Atom (not RSS) feed into the import tool, http://thirtyfour.blogspot.com/atom.xml
At this point, I was apparently logged out of Facebook and my account was suspended. I'm sorry if my initial Yahoo! Pipes feed ended up importing too many stories and that triggered some sort of flag, but it's definitely not something I had any control over and sounds like something that's more indicative of a buggy backend than anything else.
I'd obviously like my account reinstated, and I think I'll refrain from testing any new Facebook features for a while...
Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick
I'm not too confident in getting a timely response from the normal support channels, but fortunately I know a few folks within the company and hopefully things will get sorted soon. One of the amusing things about getting my account suspended was that it generated not one but twenty identical emails from Facebook, sent within a short period of time, each reading "Your account has been disabled for persistent misuse of the site. Please contact disabled@facebook.com for more information." So Facebook apparently has some issues with throttling in their own anti-DoS notification system.
In the meantime, I flat out don't exist as far as Facebook is concerned. Sheryl is still listed as Married, though to no one in particular (getting your Facebook account suspended is not yet grounds for divorce; let's hope Prop. 24 doesn't pass this November). I'm still in a bunch of Facebook pictures, but all the tags pointing to me are gone (if Facebook had the Google engineering-fu they'd have blurred my face). And I don't show up in anyone's Friends list anymore, though no one received notification that I disappeared. My account's foreign key got just a tad more foreign, in the whole CIA-black-site-secret-prison kind of way.
Here's the email I sent to disabled@facebook.com:
Heyas,
So I was trying out the new mini-feed RSS feed importation, and I appear to have gotten my Facebook account suspended because of that. I'm not exactly sure how that happened. The first thing I tried to import was a Yahoo! Pipe aggregating all my various activities
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=9e9981b0b82d05688d040dce1e068306&_render=rss
This appeared to succeed and a new mini-feed entry was created saying that I had created 51 new stories, or something along those lines. (I certainly didn't want the 51 most recent things shared, and I wasn't given control over how many items got shared.)
This didn't look like it would be terribly useful, so I wanted to import my blog's feed instead. I didn't see any option to remove the previous Yahoo! Pipes feed, so I just entered the URL for my blog's Atom (not RSS) feed into the import tool, http://thirtyfour.blogspot.com/atom.xml
At this point, I was apparently logged out of Facebook and my account was suspended. I'm sorry if my initial Yahoo! Pipes feed ended up importing too many stories and that triggered some sort of flag, but it's definitely not something I had any control over and sounds like something that's more indicative of a buggy backend than anything else.
I'd obviously like my account reinstated, and I think I'll refrain from testing any new Facebook features for a while...
Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Mario Kart Popems
Some random thoughts after playing Mario Kart for a while:
Timed battle mode is no good. Some of my fondest SNES Mario Kart memories are of using the feather to jump behind a barricade and forcing my battle mode opponent to follow me in for the kill.
Girls like Mario Kart. Playing video games with your significant other is a lot more fun, and doesn't leave you with that nasty I-just-played-WoW-for-four-hours-while-my-wife-watched-Law-and-Order feeling.
The question mark blocks are called either "presents" or "fake presents", depending on whether they'll blow you up or not. The shells are obviously "ducks".
You need to power slide. Auto mode is for wimps.
It's been 16 years and Nintendo still hasn't realized that red and green shells are indistinguishable to a sizable minority of the male population.
Timed battle mode is no good. Some of my fondest SNES Mario Kart memories are of using the feather to jump behind a barricade and forcing my battle mode opponent to follow me in for the kill.
Girls like Mario Kart. Playing video games with your significant other is a lot more fun, and doesn't leave you with that nasty I-just-played-WoW-for-four-hours-while-my-wife-watched-Law-and-Order feeling.
The question mark blocks are called either "presents" or "fake presents", depending on whether they'll blow you up or not. The shells are obviously "ducks".
You need to power slide. Auto mode is for wimps.
It's been 16 years and Nintendo still hasn't realized that red and green shells are indistinguishable to a sizable minority of the male population.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Little fish, little fish
My dining schedule being a little thrown off when Sheryl is out of town (she's currently in the air, landing at Newark airpot at hopefully 2:00am-ish), I didn't eat supper tonight until 10:00pm. And I didn't shop for supper, so I had to make do with what was in the pantry. This worked out surprisingly/surpassingly well; a tin of good sardines and some thin pasta were the key ingredients. If I had actually been planning this ahead of time I might have gotten some flat leaf parsley, but I don't feel badly about omitting it. The food was ready in under 15 minutes and was a fishier (not to mention cheaper) pasta with clam sauce.
Cook the pasta in well-salted to a bit before al dente and drain. Add a liberal amount of olive oil to the pan, along with the minced garlic, black and crushed red pepper, and the sardines. Saute them quickly on medium heat, no more than a minute, breaking up the sardines as you stir. Add the pasta back into the pan and additional olive oil if you feel like it's needed to coat. You really shouldn't put grated cheese on this, amongst any number of other things you shouldn't put on it.
The other recipe to come out the evening involves half a loaf of raisin hazelnut bread from Almondine and half a tub of Nutella, and is not really a recipe as much as it is my (no longer) secret shame.
- 1 tin of good sardines, packed in oil, but drained
- 1 or 2 or several serving of dried thin pasta (don't use shapes or tubes for this)
- olive oil
- 1 clove of minced garlic (I used a garlic press)
- black and crushed red pepper
Cook the pasta in well-salted to a bit before al dente and drain. Add a liberal amount of olive oil to the pan, along with the minced garlic, black and crushed red pepper, and the sardines. Saute them quickly on medium heat, no more than a minute, breaking up the sardines as you stir. Add the pasta back into the pan and additional olive oil if you feel like it's needed to coat. You really shouldn't put grated cheese on this, amongst any number of other things you shouldn't put on it.
The other recipe to come out the evening involves half a loaf of raisin hazelnut bread from Almondine and half a tub of Nutella, and is not really a recipe as much as it is my (no longer) secret shame.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Recent changes in my life
I didn't think I'd be able to give up on the Sidekick, but then I got an iPhone.
I didn't think I'd be able to give on World of Warcraft, but then I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (Okay, I'll still be playing Warcraft.)
Also, I love my wife.
I didn't think I'd be able to give on World of Warcraft, but then I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (Okay, I'll still be playing Warcraft.)
Also, I love my wife.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Damn you, Denby
I had a feeling it would be David Denby that got me blogging again. I had originally planned to post something a few months ago, when I read his New Yorker piece on Hollywood stars of old, that consisted entirely of the extracted lists of names and descriptions. Think "Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, ..." and "dazzling, solemn, momentous, ..." or something along those lines. Believe me, it might not be interesting now, and I can't find it on the New Yorker's website anymore, but the entire article was a series of series.
Anyhow, it's Denby's review of Vantage Point that has riled me up most recently. Sheryl got it into her head after seeing the preview a few times that this was a movie we wanted to see. I really don't know what the appeal was--I'm going to embarrass her by saying that she feel asleep when we rented Rashomon, so it's not like that kind of of thing fascinates her. But we saw Vantage Point and it was truly a waste of time and money. I had not gotten up to Denby's review of it in that week's New Yorker yet, so out of curiosity I skipped ahead when we got back home. David Denby seems to have liked this movie because there are crowd scenes with different camera angles. Which, if you're filming something that is set at a political rally, that seems hard not to have. I really need to make sure that any movies I see from here on out are not David Denby-approved.
Anyhow, it's Denby's review of Vantage Point that has riled me up most recently. Sheryl got it into her head after seeing the preview a few times that this was a movie we wanted to see. I really don't know what the appeal was--I'm going to embarrass her by saying that she feel asleep when we rented Rashomon, so it's not like that kind of of thing fascinates her. But we saw Vantage Point and it was truly a waste of time and money. I had not gotten up to Denby's review of it in that week's New Yorker yet, so out of curiosity I skipped ahead when we got back home. David Denby seems to have liked this movie because there are crowd scenes with different camera angles. Which, if you're filming something that is set at a political rally, that seems hard not to have. I really need to make sure that any movies I see from here on out are not David Denby-approved.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wedding Photos
Hey, you know that wedding we had? Well, if you haven't seen them yet, the pictures are up on the photographer's website until May or so. If you scroll through them real fast it's almost like you're watching the wedding video, which, we'll be sure to post on YouTube just as soon as we get it next week. (Or not.)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Some small updates
A. We're married (yay us!), and much love to all our friends, family, and especially parents who made our wedding so wonderful. There are various sites cropping up around the Internet with unauthorized paparazzi pictures, and I won't condone that sort of thing by linking to them (if you have uploaded any, I guess you can link to them in the comments to this post). When there are some sort of official pictures available, I'll let folks know.
B. We're on our honeymoon (yay us!), and while we obviously have Internet access in the room, we're doing our best not to be huge nerds and we're getting out and enjoying St. Kitts. I've already uploaded some photos to Flickr that you can check out now, and as I take more, more will be uploaded to the same photoset.
The photoset has been updated with a bunch more pictures, and I think Sheryl will be uploading some of her own to her Flickr account as well.
B. We're on our honeymoon (yay us!), and while we obviously have Internet access in the room, we're doing our best not to be huge nerds and we're getting out and enjoying St. Kitts. I've already uploaded some photos to Flickr that you can check out now, and as I take more, more will be uploaded to the same photoset.
The photoset has been updated with a bunch more pictures, and I think Sheryl will be uploading some of her own to her Flickr account as well.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Stand somewhat near your QB
Sheryl's got nothing to worry about: Tony Romo and I are officially on the outs.
Out of all the things I fault him for in the second half (not throwing the ball away while he could, throwing the ball away for no reason and taking the grounding penalty, throwing the ball downfield when they had so much success with the short game in the first half), the one thing that gets me the most is that Romo ignored Witten for most of the game. Witten lives to convert third downs up the middle, and while he had a good game with seven catches, some of those long lobs at the end should have gone his way–it's not like the receivers downfield were any more open.
Last year's playoff finish was heartbreaking, and Romo had my sympathy. This year, it was Romo's team to lead and it was Romo's game to lose. I'm not itching for another quarterback (and perhaps more relevantly, neither is Owens), but it's now twelve years since the Cowboys won a playoff game, and regardless of how he plays during the regular season next year, I'm going to be afraid it'll be thirteen.
Out of all the things I fault him for in the second half (not throwing the ball away while he could, throwing the ball away for no reason and taking the grounding penalty, throwing the ball downfield when they had so much success with the short game in the first half), the one thing that gets me the most is that Romo ignored Witten for most of the game. Witten lives to convert third downs up the middle, and while he had a good game with seven catches, some of those long lobs at the end should have gone his way–it's not like the receivers downfield were any more open.
Last year's playoff finish was heartbreaking, and Romo had my sympathy. This year, it was Romo's team to lead and it was Romo's game to lose. I'm not itching for another quarterback (and perhaps more relevantly, neither is Owens), but it's now twelve years since the Cowboys won a playoff game, and regardless of how he plays during the regular season next year, I'm going to be afraid it'll be thirteen.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Rabbit, rabbit
2008 is an election year–though how would we really know until the Daily Show comes back? And while I don't think 2008 is going to be anything close to 2004 from the perspective of polito-blogging, I might as well ring in the new year by mentioning the talk of a third-party Michael Bloomberg candidacy.
I'll go on the record now with the opinion that not only is Bloomberg going to run but that when we go to the polls in November 2008, we'll be choosing between a Mormon, a partly African-American, and a Jewish guy with "zealously guarded personal privacy" (which is just about as far as the Times goes by way of innuendo). I don't know whether the result of the election will amount to America putting aside or just carefully ranking its prejudices.
A Bloomberg candidacy will inevitably lead to discussions of whether he would be stealing votes from Republicans or Democrats. In anticipation of that, here's the obligatory link to information on alternative voting systems, and along with a dream of abolishing the electoral college, I'll pine away for a real democracy.
I'll go on the record now with the opinion that not only is Bloomberg going to run but that when we go to the polls in November 2008, we'll be choosing between a Mormon, a partly African-American, and a Jewish guy with "zealously guarded personal privacy" (which is just about as far as the Times goes by way of innuendo). I don't know whether the result of the election will amount to America putting aside or just carefully ranking its prejudices.
A Bloomberg candidacy will inevitably lead to discussions of whether he would be stealing votes from Republicans or Democrats. In anticipation of that, here's the obligatory link to information on alternative voting systems, and along with a dream of abolishing the electoral college, I'll pine away for a real democracy.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Candidates@Google
As a follow-up, there's a Times article today about the Candidates@Google series, and Obama's talk is up on YouTube.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Blogging 2.1
As an update to my earlier cop-out for not really blogging regularly, let me say that the best way to keep up to date on things I find interesting (assuming you'd want to do such a thing) is to subscribe to the RSS feed of my shared RSS items (it's a bit meta, which is bonus points).
This is a bit different from my feed of del.icio.us bookmarks, in that it's just things I come across in the course of reading my RSS feeds that I find interesting, rather than things I want to permanently bookmark. I use NetNewsWire (and it's web counterpart, NewsGator Online, although mostly NetNewsWire now that I have a Mac at work) to share items, but there's similar functionality in Google Reader.
The items are also shared in a little sidebar to the right on this blog, and via FeedHeads on Facebook, but there's nothing like reading an RSS feed of someone else's shared RSS items in a real RSS reader.
This is a bit different from my feed of del.icio.us bookmarks, in that it's just things I come across in the course of reading my RSS feeds that I find interesting, rather than things I want to permanently bookmark. I use NetNewsWire (and it's web counterpart, NewsGator Online, although mostly NetNewsWire now that I have a Mac at work) to share items, but there's similar functionality in Google Reader.
The items are also shared in a little sidebar to the right on this blog, and via FeedHeads on Facebook, but there's nothing like reading an RSS feed of someone else's shared RSS items in a real RSS reader.
Obama '08
There were a number of food-related events back in the NYC office that I missed this week, but one major perk of being out in Mountain View was getting to hear Barack Obama speak. Ideally this would have been in person, but an hour before he was scheduled to appear the line to enter the auditorium was already snaked around a couple of buildings, so I had to settle for watching it over video conference from another building. Which, I could have done from NYC as well, but shush. It was cool just being on campus to feel the excitement associated with his visit.
Many things have gone very, very wrong under the Bush presidency, and I don't know how much of it Obama (or anyone else) would be able to undo. There have been many disservices perpetrated against this country and the world, and I'm not going to say that having a president that lacks intelligence, moral authority, and sound judgment is the chief disservice, it's certainly at the root of it all. Listening to Obama speak, and imagining what it would be like to have a competent president who had both this country's and this world's interests in mind, I teared up a bit. It's a sad state of affairs that such a basic concept should be so moving, but we already knew that, right?
Many things have gone very, very wrong under the Bush presidency, and I don't know how much of it Obama (or anyone else) would be able to undo. There have been many disservices perpetrated against this country and the world, and I'm not going to say that having a president that lacks intelligence, moral authority, and sound judgment is the chief disservice, it's certainly at the root of it all. Listening to Obama speak, and imagining what it would be like to have a competent president who had both this country's and this world's interests in mind, I teared up a bit. It's a sad state of affairs that such a basic concept should be so moving, but we already knew that, right?
Monday, November 12, 2007
Things to watch when you're watching
After a nice weekend break with the always hospitable Mirers, I'm holed up in a hotel in Palo Alto again. The cable here is different and frightening (Fox is channel 8? Football is on at 10:00am?), and I distrust it, so I've turned to the Internets for video entertainment.
I never got fully caught up to Ze Frank's The Show, despite the fact that there are no more new episodes. I started watching last summer when I had another long hotel stay in Redmond, and I've come back to a bit, watching a couple of episodes here and there.
I watched some of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 shorts with Petey last night, and I watched some more today back in my hotel room. I have some of the full-length episodes queued up on Netflix, but I'm almost positive that Sheryl will hate them, so watching 10 minute mini-films on YouTube is probably my best way to get a fix.
I started watching Batman Begins, which I had ripped to my hard drive, but stopped after 15 minutes or so and went out searching for online episodes of the old Batman: The Animated Series instead. It ran on Fox weekday afternoons when I was a kid, and it's such a wonderful show. AOL video has a large collection of episodes, mainly from the first and best season, which in my mind completely justifies the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Joost is allegedly a source for interesting content, but after scrounging around for an invitation, I found that it's mainly just reality show rejects and, like, hockey. But there is a Comedy Central channel, and one of the featured shows is Stella, which I can't get enough of. So I've watched a couple of those.
No rundown of recommended Internet video would be complete without linking to the manatee bit from Dr. Katz, of course. So there you go.
I never got fully caught up to Ze Frank's The Show, despite the fact that there are no more new episodes. I started watching last summer when I had another long hotel stay in Redmond, and I've come back to a bit, watching a couple of episodes here and there.
I watched some of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 shorts with Petey last night, and I watched some more today back in my hotel room. I have some of the full-length episodes queued up on Netflix, but I'm almost positive that Sheryl will hate them, so watching 10 minute mini-films on YouTube is probably my best way to get a fix.
I started watching Batman Begins, which I had ripped to my hard drive, but stopped after 15 minutes or so and went out searching for online episodes of the old Batman: The Animated Series instead. It ran on Fox weekday afternoons when I was a kid, and it's such a wonderful show. AOL video has a large collection of episodes, mainly from the first and best season, which in my mind completely justifies the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Joost is allegedly a source for interesting content, but after scrounging around for an invitation, I found that it's mainly just reality show rejects and, like, hockey. But there is a Comedy Central channel, and one of the featured shows is Stella, which I can't get enough of. So I've watched a couple of those.
No rundown of recommended Internet video would be complete without linking to the manatee bit from Dr. Katz, of course. So there you go.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
MLK, Jr. Wedding Weekends FTW
It looks like Sheryl and I will be spending our first wedding anniversary attending the Wagner-McCoy-Ghan wedding-cum-hyphenation-fest. Congratulations, kids!
Did I mentioned that Ryan lived with me for a few weeks at the start of Senior (his Junior) year?
Did I mentioned that Ryan lived with me for a few weeks at the start of Senior (his Junior) year?
Monday, October 22, 2007
Rachel Nichols sunk my dinghy
Why is that girl I sat next to (well, with my eyes) in Economics classes on television all the time? It seems Rachel Nichols is starring in the new movie, P2.
As far as I can tell from the title and from watching the commercials fly by on my DVR, the movie is about Ms. Nichols playing Battleship against various foes (in a parking lot, maybe?). Which, given that she took a class on Game Theory from an Ivy League institution, my money's on the blonde.
As far as I can tell from the title and from watching the commercials fly by on my DVR, the movie is about Ms. Nichols playing Battleship against various foes (in a parking lot, maybe?). Which, given that she took a class on Game Theory from an Ivy League institution, my money's on the blonde.
Separate vocations
My lovely wife (sic, dude) Sheryl is now a lovely food blogger person. Soup and Bread, so named because you can dip bread into soup, is a great way for me to remember all the stuff that I ate, and a great way for you to read about all the stuff that I ate.
I'll likely be posting any future cooking entries there as well, but Sheryl clearly has the talent in the family.
I'll likely be posting any future cooking entries there as well, but Sheryl clearly has the talent in the family.
Friday, September 21, 2007
They still feed me, though...
On top of having serious problems with the Blogger CAPTCHAs, I've found that the automatic paper towel dispenser in the bathroom at work fails to register when I wave my hands in front of it. Google really doesn't think I'm a human being.
All Women Love...
- Julianne Moore
- Maria Bello
- Jenna Fischer
- Liv Tyler (I'm not sure about how universal this is, but Sheryl loves her)
- Jennifer Connelly
All women hate Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Am I missing anyone?
Monday, September 3, 2007
The trouble with patents
Many bits have been spilled expounding on the troubles with America's patent system. The bulk of the criticism centers around the granting of overly broad patents for less-than-novel ideas, and the existence of "patent trolls"–organizations that hold a portfolio of patents for the express purpose of suing successful companies.
Here is my contribution to the debate over patent reform: why on earth do illustrations patent applications consist of black and white clip art from the '70s? Are we supposed to be excited about the technology behind GPay on a potential GPhone (which, I definitely don't have any inside information about) when the patent application was designed in ClarisWorks? Even Apple's patent applications look shitty. For reals, guys.
Here is my contribution to the debate over patent reform: why on earth do illustrations patent applications consist of black and white clip art from the '70s? Are we supposed to be excited about the technology behind GPay on a potential GPhone (which, I definitely don't have any inside information about) when the patent application was designed in ClarisWorks? Even Apple's patent applications look shitty. For reals, guys.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Et tu, Bruni?
(Not to be confused with Et tu, etouffée?)
We don't like Franny's. Admittedly, this opinion was formed after one visit, which is not the most objective way to evaluate a restaurant. But Sheryl and I both had a distinctively unpleasant experience, and that's not the sort of place you tend to give a second chance.
Frank Bruni busted out two stars for the joint today, which is pretty mind-blowing when you think about it. (And my last name isn't even Chodorow.)
So that's something. In the time since eating at Franny's, we've been to Noodle Pudding several times, which has much better overall Italian, both Lunetta and Bocca Lupo, which do small Italian plates better (though admittedly not with homemade sausage), and are itching to go to Lucali, where the pizza is supposed to rival Di Fara's.
Maybe this is just Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens bias kicking in. We do like Helios, though, which is only a few blocks from Franny's on in Prospect Heights.
(Edit: There's a lively discussion on Chowhound about the two star review–perhaps discussing Franny's is not longer verboten?)
We don't like Franny's. Admittedly, this opinion was formed after one visit, which is not the most objective way to evaluate a restaurant. But Sheryl and I both had a distinctively unpleasant experience, and that's not the sort of place you tend to give a second chance.
Frank Bruni busted out two stars for the joint today, which is pretty mind-blowing when you think about it. (And my last name isn't even Chodorow.)
So that's something. In the time since eating at Franny's, we've been to Noodle Pudding several times, which has much better overall Italian, both Lunetta and Bocca Lupo, which do small Italian plates better (though admittedly not with homemade sausage), and are itching to go to Lucali, where the pizza is supposed to rival Di Fara's.
Maybe this is just Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens bias kicking in. We do like Helios, though, which is only a few blocks from Franny's on in Prospect Heights.
(Edit: There's a lively discussion on Chowhound about the two star review–perhaps discussing Franny's is not longer verboten?)
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