Archive of October 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Food meme

Been going to do this for a while since seeing Allan's list… 
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you've eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
In my case, there's also strike and bold.  That being because some of these things I've eaten, but wouldn't again because I don't eat land animals 
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
So that's 57/100.  Certainly not extensive, but much better than Allan's 37!  ;)
October 12, 2008 @ 12:27 am | Category:
Saturday, October 11, 2008

Joining the iPhone Cult

For the past three years my job has required me to be available 24/7/365.  Fortunately it's more precautionary than necessary as we're very cautious about things that could disrupt our service.  In any case, the company had provide me a Motorola RAZR with a full data plan so I could text and monitor email.

This setup worked pretty well as I had few meeting that weren't regularly scheduled.  Thus I could accept the invites on our Exchange Server, but then put them on my Google Calendar with alerts to my phone.  Similarly, I rarely had a need to write anything other than a short email reply.  But with my recent move to Engineering Manager - Portal I quickly ran into problems keeping up with email and meetings during the day.  As such, it was time for a new more full featured phone.  And until very recently it would have meant a Samsung Blackjack 2.  I could have had one of these long ago, but I liked the small size of the RAZR and I was getting by with it.  But at my boss's insistence, I needed to upgrade.

I explained why I still had the RAZR and liked it, but realized it was time for me to reluctantly move to a Blackjack.  At this point he told me I could now get an iPhone instead if I wanted.  Thus I embarked upon a mission to talk to a few of the people I knew who had been beta testing their use for the company.  And it didn't take long to learn that it was definitely the way to go unless you do a lot of texting.  The Blackjack's hardware keyboard makes it pretty good for texting.  But my texting needs aren't great as they are largely incoming reminders.  Thus, I opted to join the iPhone Cult as I generally call it.  And?

I have to say, after two days I really can't say enough good things about my new iPhone!  And although I have loaded some music on it, at this point I haven't had a chance to try it as an iPod.  But that's alright, that's not the primary reason I have it.  But I can say this thing is far more than a phone, it's a palm sized computer.  The mail and calendar issues I had have been wiped out.  This means no more double calendar maintenance and likely far less Google Calendar use.  Actually this is unfortunate, because I certainly like it better than Exchange.  Although it's not nearly as bad as Outlook which I still only use on a limited basis because I hate it!  (For desktop email I use Thunderbird.)

Anyhow, the iPhone has proven it's a very powerful tool that is going to help me a great deal.  I still need to work on refining and/or changing My Organizational System (GTD) as I need to rethink some of the things I'm currently doing.  Largely that's because the iPhone should allow me to do more work that I could with the RAZR.  Thus some of the tools I've been connecting to might not be the best.  Offhand, one thing that I'm contemplating is moving from Sandy to Remember The Milk as they offer an iPhone app in their Pro version.  The other negative now to using Sandy is that Jott went premium for access to Sandy.  I don't use it enough to justify the cost so I've quit using it.

So I'm now contemplating how to maximize my new tool to make both my personal and professional lives more manageable.  So I guess I'm in the cult now, although I don't see myself hanging on Steve's every word at the next Apple dog and pony show.  ;)
October 11, 2008 @ 11:33 pm | Category: