Category: Miscellaneous (Page 4 of 4)

Public Service Message:

The one on the right comes from the UK but can be found in many good grocery stores in California. The contents is a dark brown and has a consistency of soft honey. They get points for the cool jar but I reserve the right to deduct the points for fooling people into thinking that it actually contains real Marmite.

The one on the left comes from New Zealand, and can't be found anywhere except there. The contents is as dark brown as you can get without being described as "black", and has the consistency of used axle grease, or some kind of ointment. It is the real stuff.

Ideally it should be stored in a tin in the garage and applied to toast with the back side of a putty knife. 

I had heard of Tod Machover from the pages of KEYBOARD magazine many
years ago when he was working on augmented Cellos. This 20 minute video
of a talk he gave at TED this year is fascinating, but from about the 13 minute mark on, it actually brought me to tears:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/246

I was reminded of William Horwood's book Scallagrigg, which also blends the themes of Cerebral Palsy and Computer Software, and enablement.

I've been so busy recently that I haven't been thinking about posting here. Well, here's a report from the end of February.

With J and A living in Napa we occasionally hear about food-related things that interest us. This time it was that COPIA,
the American Center for Wine, Food, and The Arts was holding their
annual Wine and Chocolate Tasting, billed as "Death By Chocolate: The
Ultimate Chocolate Festival". Naturally, we were interested.

We drove up to Napa with a couple of co-worker/friends from China,
thinking they would enjoy the drive (and the chocolate) and possibly
get to meet up with J and A who were also planning on being there.

Alas, the weather was grey with odd spots of rain but it was still fun and the chocolate was delicious.

The wine-tasting part was frustrating for a couple of reasons. One was
that the various chocolates on offer were overpowering for the most
part, that I never felt I was appreciating the full flavor of the wine.

Another was than I'm not used to wine tasting – I know you are
supposed to taste and spit and to be honest, there wasn't a lot of
spit-receptacles available and this place was crowded. I don't think
they were really set up for the formal taste-and-spit process. Best you
could do was sip, taste, then spit discreetly back into your glass at
which point you had to make your way through the crowd to the nearest
"wet trash" bin. So I stopped sampling the wine and focused on the
chocolate.

One thing I really wish: 1) that I had discovered the Port Wine
vendors upstairs sooner, and 2) that I didn't have to drive us home.

The variety of chocolate goods on display was quite astounding,
including icecream and also some gluten-free chocolate souffles which
were very delicious and reminded me of my numerous gluten-intolerant
relatives (as well as my own history). I meant to take down the details
of the vendor but I seem to have misplaced my notes. Darn.

The other product that sticks in my mind are Jade Chocolates. These were quite special.

Scene: Driving to work

Me: So I got a reply from Ed in the CD office. He likes my code, says he is learning something from it.

Her: He's not allowed to fall in love with you. I fell in love with you from reading your code. Anyone would.

Me: I think "anyone" is a little broad…

Her: Are you calling me short?

Me: …I would use the term "petite".

Hurricane-level winds knocked the power out yesterday at 8:30am. The
power has just been restored half an hour ago. Will it stay on, or will
the 3rd storm expected this afternoon knock it out again? Either way,
it's nice to have the furnace on, warming up the house. It was cold
last night, and freezing temperatures are forecast for tonight so
here's hoping.

One of the wrongly convicted people whose stories are told in the film After Innocence bears a striking resemblance to Doonesbury’s Zonker Harris, don’t you agree?