Side effects

One of the listed side effects of one of the drugs I got put on today is diarrhea.  This is a Type 6.5 at least if not a full fledged Type 7.

Bronchitis

Got drugs,  going to bed.

Right on!

From a Twitter feed I follow, "Suggestion for PGA, esp The Masters,
anyone who yells "Get in the hole!" gets thrown out and not allowed to
ever attend a tournament again. "

Breathe! Breathe!

That's what I'm having trouble with the last week or so.  Something there in the midwest really hammered my allergy receptors.  My head has been a solid block of snot and I've had serious upper respiratory congestion.  It feels like it's getting better, but it's still really annoying.

The office cat

We have a cat that lives under our office trailer.  S/he (we don't know, but I'll use she because all cats are female until proven otherwise) isn't feral, looks like a run-away or a dump job; most likely a dump job because there are no houses close to us.  It's taken months, but she's finally tamed down and spends her days in the office.  A sweet kitty, I just want to find out who dumped her and beat him with a large stick.

 

I'm not feeling a lot better, but had to come in and clear out my voice and e mail boxes.  At least the cat missed me.

Vettel

If Red Bull gets some reliability, Vettel has a real chance at a championship.

Home, sick

Different than homesick; I don't get homesick.  I just have some upper respiratory stuff going on and decided to hang out around the house instead of hacking and coughing in the office.

I hope you are feeling better than I am.

Thereisnofood

@home. com  I once knew someone with that as his email address.  Right now it describes my problem, so I'm going grocery shopping to get some.  Was almost reduced to eating the kitteh's food this morning.

Australian Grand Prix

Is the Sauber front wing structurally sound?  Kobayashi shed them in
practice like leaves in fall then took out 2 other drivers in a
first-lap crash where it again broke off at the base of the pylons.

Button timed the change to slicks perfectly, seems to have really
pissed off Hamilton that it wasn't him.  And how about Alguersuari
holding off Schumacher for so long?!?

Contrary to what the first GP portended, the racing this year might be
pretty darned good.

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again; WTF is up with
Speed TV doing an America's Got Talent-type show? What's next?
America's Next Top Mullet?

Aren't you glad you looked at this one

Like I said, travel messes up my system.

Home again, home again

Jiggity Jig.

Recovering from trip.  Time to let the kitty know I still love him.

Headed out

On the way

On the road again

Headed back to the Left Coast in a couple of minutes.  A couple of hours in the car,  then 7 or so on airplanes and in airports.   Pray for me.

Returning to normal

Habits are settling down.

Rain

Looks like about an inch fell last night. I sleep like a baby when
it's raining hard. Creeks should be running high.

Small town celebrations

Service for family member was last evening.   SRO in church, the supper afterward was epic, but low on fiber.

Flyover country

I'm deep in the Midwest, I'd forgotten the quality (and quantity) of food that gets served here.  Dinner at relative's last night had venison, frog and squirrel along w/ sides.  Yummy!

Nice thing about McDonald's

There's usually one with a clean(ish) and stocked bathroom when you need one. 

And travel always plays Hell with my system.

The Red-Eye

Sitting in the airport in fly-over country after catching a flight at 0100.  Exhausted, going to get rental car and drive another 3 hours...

The Tankerov?

Now that Northrop/EADS has dropped out of the competition to replace the doddering KC-135, word comes that Russia's United Aircraft of Moscow (a consortium of  Sukhoi, Tupolev, Ilyushin, MiG) plans on submitting a bid based on the Ilyushin Il-96.  Maybe it's just me, but this sounds like a Very Bad Idea.  Not that there's any secret technology in the basic airframe and refueling systems, but it's the other systems that will be installed that are the concern.

Even if the Ruskies convert the aircraft to a two-engine configuration to better compete with the 767 and the A-330, it's still a too risky proposition to even entertain a bid from them.  My advice, "Just Say Nyet!"

This just in, EADS has asked for an extension of the bid deadline so they can go it alone, without Northrop.  My advice, don't extend it, the replacement for that 707-based airplane is too far overdue to wait any longer.  Of course, one of it's main duties is refueling the B-52, an even older airframe...

Fire In My Bones

I got this set of 3 CDs a few weeks who. It's subtitled Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel [1944-2007].  It's some really good stuff,  if you like gospel, buy this set.

12 Hours of Sebring

Great racing so far,  nine hours to go racing into the night.

Yet more CB&C

At least I hope that's what is pushing through me.

"Elective Rectal Cleansing"

All I can say is, EEEEWWWWW!

Corned beef and cabbage

It's still rampaging its way through my system.  But it was tsty!

 

RIP Clair.

Not talkative this morn

Death in family yesterday.

The Apple iPad

The Mac Fanboy in me is slavering with desire to get the newest shiny thing from Cupertino.  I'm conflicted though.  It's new, it's big, it's shiny, and really, it's not all that expensive.  But it's also AT&T again, it doesn't handle Flash, and I already have an iPod Touch.

 

I'll probably wait a while, I'm seldom on the bleeding edge of technology.  I'll let the early adopters suss out the bugs and teething pains that every new device has.

 

But I still really, really want to be the first one on the block with one!

Winterish this morning

Just when it seemed that winter weather was over, it was below freezing this morning.  Roads were a bit slick, morons were driving around peering through scraped portholes on their windshields, still leafless trees glistening with frost and frost ferns on windshields of the cars along the side of the street.

Composting toilets

Check out this video. http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10285
If everyone got one of these, I'd have to get another job!

Thermal injury

I was cooking dinner last evening and as I was taking the meatloaf out of the oven the loaf pan (which was on a cookie sheet to keep the oven clean) started to slide.  Of course my automatic reaction was to grab at it with my left hand.  It turned out to be HOT!  Imagine that...  I now have burns on two fingers of my left hand, no blistering, but still bad first-degree and a pretty good one on the back of my right index finger.  Still not sure how that one got there.  I ended up throwing the meatloaf and cookie sheet down on top of the stove; didn't lose anything but some juice.  Said bad words and immediately stuck both hands under cold, running water for as long as I could stand it.  Later copious application of Lidocaine/Prilocaine ointment took care of the worst of the pain.  Still hurts this afternoon, but I can function.

 

Yes, the meatloaf was juicy and tasty!  Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots tonight!  Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone.

RIP Peter Aurness

Better known as Peter Graves (he used Graves to avoid confusion with his brother, James Arness) who died from a heart attack 4 days before his 84th birthday.  Unusually for Hollywood, he was married to Jane Endress for almost 60 years, from 1950 to the day of his death.  Though most remember him from his stints as Jim Phelps on Mission: Impossible and Captain Clarence Oveur on the Airplane! movies, I best remember him from his frequent appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and starring as Jim Newton in the series Fury; both I saw in reruns.

 

He played the heavy for so long, it was good to see him find the fun of doing comedy later in his career.

Banning salt in restaurants?

An Assemblyman from New York City, Felix Ortiz, has introduced a bill to ban all salt use in restaurant cooking.  The penalty would be a $1000 fine for each individual addition of salt by restaurant staff, whether before, during or after cooking.  There's an article from the Times Union here.  Yes, his father aparently had heart disease and high blood pressure that he links to excessive salt use.  But as anyone who watches Alton Brown can tell you, NaCl is essential to the chemistry of cooking. 

 

The Assemblyman freely admits to eating ham, cheese and bread in restaurants and says he will continue to do so; Of course, since he is a politician, he contradicts himself by stating, "I think salt should be banned in restaurants. I ask if a dish has salt in it, and if I does, I get something else that doesn't have salt,"   I think the Assemblyman should be forced to subsist on a diet with no added salt for a month.

 

Or, maybe with a name like Ortiz, he just hates the Irish and doesn't want them to have their corned beef and soda bread on St. Patrick's Day...

Fernando Alonso!

Ferrari 1 - 2 followed by McLaren!  Shumi took 6th, not bad for an old guy after a two-year layoff.  Even with what sounded like a broken exhaust, Vettel managed 4th. 

 

Maybe changing the exhaustt routing halfway through the preseason testing wasn't a good idea...

And, the winner of th Bahrain GP is:

Haven't a clue, I haven't watched it yet.  Time to make coffee, then watch the race on DVR.

Red Bull on the pole!

Go Sebastian!

Formula 1 is back

Looks like it's going to be an interesting season.  No refueling, tire changes in under 2 seconds, several freshman teams.  The added half mile of course in Bahrain looks really rough and (IMO) won't do anything for passing.  I may actually get up in the middle of the night to watch the first race live instead of recording it.

Theories

Einstein is famously quoted as having said, "If you can't explain your theory to an 8-year old,  you don't understand it."  That's close,  what he actually said was, "If you can't explain it simply,  you don't understand it well enough."  I haven't been able to find out when or where he said it,  but I like the second one better so it must be the correct one. 

I think that government should be required to apply that precept;  if something can't be explained simply, and make sense to a third-grade class, it can't be enacted. Think of how this would affect "health care" legislation.  And maybe if the SEC had been required to explain credit default swap derivatives I would still have a retirement account...

Nixtamalization

I've always thought that was a really cool word.  If you don't know,  it refers to the process of treating corn (or maize if you prefer) with an alkali to make it more nutritious, tastier and easier to grind.  One of the problems with using corn as a main food source w/o nixtamalization is that the vitamin B3 in it is not bioavailable.  This caused outbreaks of pellagra in populations that did not use it.  Corn as a main food source also lacks essential amino acids.   Nixtamal (the processed corn) combined with beans does supply all the amino acids needed.  

So, if you eat corn tortillas, tamales or hominy,  you are enjoying the benefits of this ancient process.  You can thank the Meso-Americans for your delicious food.  And you could combine the nixtamal with legumes and go vegetarian,  but that's another post.

Why this subject far a blog?

I've tried blogging before,  but really wasn't very successful at it.  It wasn't that I lacked thoughts that I wanted to get out of my brain; it was procrastination and lack of consistency.  Using this as a trigger for posting seems to be working.   I've previously become an ex-blogger within a couple of weeks; this time I've gone a full month!   Add the new smart phone into the equation and this effort reeks of success.

We'll see if I'm still posting 6 months from now...  Maybe by then someone will be reading my drivel!

I miss the Automatic Human Jukebox

When I lived in the San Francisco area,  one of the buskers I really enjoyed was the Automatic Human Jukebox.  The guy,  whose name I later learned was Grimes Poznikov,  sat in a painted cardboard box all day on or near Fisherman's Wharf.  I regularly saw him in front of Ghirardeli Square.   Tourists (or locals) would put money through a slot in the side of the box labelled with the song they wanted to hear.   Then a door on the front of the box would swing up,  usually accompanied by a slide whistle,  and a bearded face would emerge and play the tune, almost always on a trumpet.  The guy was GOOD!  I would spend hours hanging out down there and preferred to be near him,  mainly for the entertainment; I even dropped a few dollars in the box myself.   He appeared on more than one national TV show.

Sadly,  he was another who was destroyed by mental illness and alcohol.  There's a photo and better article than I could write at http://short.to/1h0w2 

Something I hadn't thought of

How did the wizarding world's (Harry Potter universe) economy work?  Here's one person's view here.

Should Obama have killed NASA?

Yes,  I know the agency still exists, but the proposed 2011 budget essentially guts manned space flight for the US.  He has cancelled the Constellation program (which Bush 43 had severely underfunded) and is underfunding the Ares program.  After the final flight of the Shuttle early next year the only access US astronauts will have to the ISS will be in rented seats on Russian spacecraft.  That's for at least 5 years.   The odds are very good that China, and maybe India, will leave low earth orbit before we do.

During the interval NASA is hoping that the commercial sector will develop cargo spacecraft to service the ISS.  I have friends who work a couple of these companies, and privately they are dubious about the chances for real success.

So,  let's all encourage our representatives to fully fund our heavy lift boosters and long-range manned spacecraft.   Look at it as high tech jobs stimulus.

Insert subject here

Work has eaten my brain,  I have nothing pithy available right now.

And, it might snow tonight

Man,  I enjoy winter but even *I* am ready for it to be over...

Brrrrr

Below freezing this morning,  car windows frosted,  roads OK though.  Sadly,  there is a lack of snow in the mountains this year.   Looks like some water districts are going to have some problems.  And Seattle City Light is looking at reduced generation capacity. 

An interesting post on gut bacteria

Read it here.

This is one of the other things

'nuff said.

Vegas

Not all posts here will be poop related, I do have a life outside the stall.

I'm a bit of a Vegas-phile, have been since I was legally able to go.

While I've stayed many places, I'm a Downtown, Old-Vegas guy. My home base there is now Main Street Station, http://www.mainstreetcasino.com/ It's a smaller place (for Vegas) with an old San Francisco vibe, reasonable video poker pay tables, friendly dealers and pit critters, most convenient parking downtown and excellent food and made-on-site beer. The place I miss most is the Desert Inn, which was torn down to make room for Wynn; but they did leave the golf course.

My favorite breakfast place always has been the Peppermill Restaurant, right on the strip http://www.peppermilllasvegas.com/restaurant/index.html, but this last trip I found Hash House A Go Go, http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/vegas/ . They bill themselves as selling "Twisted Farm Food" and what they serve is EXCELLENT. The portions are huge by large, comparable to the food at the Peppermill. The biggest down side for them is that they are way west, at Sahara and Rainbow; since I always have a car this isn't a problem for me. They can be very crowded on weekend mornings, so plan on a wait.

The place I've found for dinner (or lunch) is Yama Sushi (no web) in the shopping center on the NE corner of Flaimingo and Maryland Pkwy. Their dinner deal is all you can eat for something like $25; each order is freshly prepared, it's NOT a buffet. There are a few minor restrictions, like only one order of uni, but the quality is high, the help is great and the service is quick. They also have a LOT of specialty rolls with great names like Man Whore, Who's Your Daddy, Wet Dream and Happy Ending.

Speaking of buffets, I eat at them regularly. Downtown no one beats Main Street Station. On the Strip, admittedly way south, the one at M Resort can't be beat.

Another place that has gone away that I miss is the Stage Deli in the Caeser's Forum Shops. It was a clone of the Stage Deli in New York. I've heard that it has moved to the MGM Grand, what I don't understand is why they didn't go to NYNY when it opened.

Maybe more later, right now I have other things that need to be done.

And, Best Picture goes to

The Hurt Locker! Not that I've seen it; or for that matter, any of the nominees for Best Motion Picture. Matter of fact, I haven't been to a movie in a theater is well over a year and can't even remember the last time I went. I do want to see Avatar though, so maybe this weekend.

Melissa D'Arabian

In case you don't recognize the name,  she won Next Food Network Star season before last.   She's in her second season and seems to be really getting in the groove.  I don't see her as another Guy Fieri though. 

This season, she's not mentioning France 6 times a show,  which has really cut down the booze intake if you play the drinking game.   Now,  if they could just get her to improve her knife skills...

Oscar Night!

A good excuse to hang out with people I like and rate the boobage.

Sunshine on my back yard makes the grass grow

Paraphrasing Henry John Deutchendorf,  Jr.  there.   You probably know him as John Denver.  While he wasn't popular in the circles I ran in,  I liked his music.   His output had dropped a lot when he crashed his new Long-EZ into the Pacific in 1997.  Just like Glen Campbell, booze got the better of him,  though there was no ETOH in his body when it was recovered.

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here in Pugetopolis, I plan to enjoy it.   But the coffeemaker just beeped and it's time to feed that caffeine-crazed,  jittery monkey on my back.

Will CERN end the world?

The question is, will the CERN particle accelerator create a black hole that will eat the Earth?  My personal opinion (supported by mainstream science) is that it won't because the energies aren't high enough.

A product you need to buy

I have no affiliation with them, but it's available at
http://hstrial-mycocoacreations.intuitwebsites.com/products.html
It's tasty too!