Are you getting a Wii when it comes out? Are you getting a PS3? Are you getting a MacBook Air? And most recently, are you getting a new iPhone?
I was an early adopter of the first iPhone. I paid a lot for a device that had yet to mature. I don't regret waiting in line, the price, or the early problems. The 3G iPhone was a toss-up for me, however. Nearly all of the features I needed were included in the 2.0 firmware update. It was the wants that got me to fetch the new phone. Others have postured that it is one of Apple's greatest strengths: make people want regardless of need.
So after countless queries of my intentions toward the new phone and personal deliberations and marital negotiations, I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 3G.
My impressions so far are mostly based on the capabilities of the new firmware so I can only comment on the two elements of the actual phone. First, 3G is so much better than Edge, as it should be. Second, the flush headphone jack is fantastic.
On the new firmware side, I've grabbed quite a few free apps and bought Bomberman Touch and will probably grab a sudoku game soon. The array of apps is already nice and is bound to grow quite well. I'm anxious to see what will come down the road over the next few months.
Now, back to playing with the phone for a few more hours--it's fun!
]]>Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
1 Tbsp butter
1/3 of an onion, diced
handful of slivered blanched almonds
2 cups loosely chopped kale
2 cups boiling water
1 bag of flavored/salted corn tortilla chips
Preparation
Rinse the quinoa two or three times until the water is not cloudy. Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil in a kettle or separate pot.
Sauté the onion and almond slivers in the butter over medium heat until the onions begin to turn clear (about 3-4 minutes).
Add the quinoa to the sauté pan and mix with the onions. Toast for about 2 minutes.
Add the boiling water and kale and mix together and cover.
Reduce heat to low and simmer until the water is gone (17 minutes).
Remove from the heat, and let rest covered for 5 minutes.
Serving
These Garden of Eatin Tarami Corn Chips went really well with the quinoa. The salt and tamari flavor from the chips tempered the quinoa quite nicely.
If you're just going to eat the quinoa, add some garlic salt to taste.
Here's a pic of my quinoa and chips lunch.
Substitutions and Additions
A month ago I was slicing carrots with a mandoline for a quinoa pilaf and took off a chunk of my right index finger.
The ER experience was a nightmare. We first went to Urgent Care and they said it would be a 2.5 hour wait. So we went to the hospital ER and after waiting in the waiting room for about 90 minutes a nurse came out and told us all that unless we were dying, we might as well go home cause they were overfull and had more critical coming in via ambulances. We returned to Urgent Care and the kind people there stayed past closing to see me.
The piece couldn't be reattached (besides, it was 4+ hours since the incident anyway), and nothing could be stitched together, so they cauterized the blood vessels to stop the bleeding.
Fast forward 12 hours later and we started to change the dressing, but the injury was still spurting, so we returned to Urgent Care and they said there was nothing more they could do. Another 90ish minute wait at ER and I and a few other cases were taken into triage. After much more waiting, they basically redressed the wound, gave me a painkiller and said, "it will stop bleeding eventually."
I've gotten most of the shape back but keeping the wound dressed in antibiotic cream 24/7 has slowed the healing process considerably. I'm probably back to about 90% feeling in the finger and I need to start rehabilitating the joint from lack of movement.
So I've learned a few things with this experience:
Oh, and the mandoline got thrown out. ;)
]]>There were some very generous people who gave excellent Calphalon cookware for Sherrie Ann and my wedding (thank you!). Having done little cooking in my life beyond instant ramen, pasta or the occasional Mexican rice, I was wary about stepping out of the relative comfort of the frying pan into the raw, unrelenting fire that is kitchen ballet. I will chronicle my first steps in cooking calisthenics. And by chronicle, I mean I'll keep it short.
After figuring out what each utensil, device, container, pot and pan was and it's core intended use, it was time to set the flames upon something.
Attempt 1: Instant Stir Fry
Dish: Frozen, pre-packaged stir fry with radiatori noodles and a cream sauce.
Preparation: This is a simple throw it all in a pan to heat everything up and serve.
Summary: I wanted to use the wok, to see what all the hubub was about. It was cool, but I overcooked everything.
Outcome: Edible.
Attempt 2: Fried Steamed Tofu
Dish: Sweet pan fried tofu with furikake.
Preparation: Limited to (AKA, inspired by) random and sparse fridge pickings, I selected firm tofu cut into 1in. by 2in. by 3in. blocks, marinated in soba tsuyu for a couple of minutes while the pan heated. Add furikake to the mix, and place the tofu in pan with all the sauce and some water. Cover and steam for a couple minutes. Remove the cover and cook until most of the water/sauce is gone (a minute or so). Add a dash or two of extra virgin olive oil and fry both sides of the tofu block for less than a minute each.
Summary: The different phases of cooking go pretty fast, but it's hard to overcook firm tofu.
Outcome: Actually, quite good!
Attempt 3: Hash Browns
Dish: One of the classic breakfast staples, hash browns.
Preparation: While at the store buying hurricane supplies in case Flosie hit us hard, we picked up a bag of regular brown potatoes (none much larger than fist-sized). A quick Google search came up with the recipe and a key element to the preparation. First, mostly peel the potatoes and grate them. Next, and importantly, dry them with a towel. Chop some onions and mix into the potatoes. Drop a slice of butter in a pan for coloring and pour in the potato onion mixture. Cook each side (re-butter before flipping) for 5-7 minutes and serve.
Summary: Such a simple and easy dish, there was very little opportunity to mess up.
Outcome: Yummy.
At this point, we consulted with a couple of kitchen veterans (Jan and Shelly) as to what every kitchen should have as core ingredients. We went shopping and stocked up on a lot of spices, sauces, oils, herbs, veggies and other core ingredients. Now it's time to make something for real.
Attempt 4: Asparagus and Tofu in Balsamic Vinegar
Dish: Fresh asparagus and firm tofu cooked in a balsamic vinegar and butter sauce. Taken from a cookbook: New Food Fast, by Donna Hay.
Preparation: Start with butter and balsamic vinegar and gradually add a few things including halved asparagus and finally tofu. It's a very simply prepared dish, which seems to be the point of most of the recipes in that cookbook.
Summary: I made a couple of mistakes with this dish. First, Sherrie Ann was excited to use our asparagus pot and pre-cooked the asparagus. Second, we made an entire batch of asparagus, which while good, was way too much. Third, although the recipe didn't call for it, the tofu should have been marinated.
Outcome: Overcooked asparagus, under-flavored tofu, and the late addition of thyme couldn't be saved by the wonderous balsamic butter sauce taste. Call this one a failure but worth another try. The gas it gave us was rather pungent too.
Attempt 5: Classic Stir Fry
Dish: A classic, simple, vegetable stir fry.
Preparation: Armed with a stocked fridge, including a package of pre-cut stir fry vegetables from the market (and some additional fresh veggies), this should have been a very easy concoction, even without following any recipe.
Summary: Slightly discouraged by my first attempt, and too lazy to dig out the wok again, I cooked this in a large pan. Mistake #1. I started with a little sesame oil and dropped in raw broccoli which was a good start since it was the thickest and needed longest to cook. Mistake #2 -- I didn't use enough oil so the cooking on the broccoli wasn't even. I then added snow peas (so delicious!) and cooked a little more, but added a little water for a more even cooking. I covered the pan to get a little steaming action for a short time. Adding the package of pre-cut veggies and a couple dashes of shoyu, I steamed and cooked a bit longer. Tasting proved mistake #3. I didn't rinse the pre-cut veggies so they had a vinegary taste which I overcompensated with by adding too much shoyu. I also added a few squirts of the classic Thai hot sauce with the green cap. I finished by adding sesame sticks and served.
Outcome: I really should have used the wok. I overcooked everything again, trying to get out the vinegary taste and added way too much shoyu. I also could have used a little less hot sauce. The dish was far too salty. Adding some unsalted peanut butter helped quite a bit but in the end we couldn't finish our servings, me because it was too salty and Sherrie Ann because it was too spicy. Another failure.
Attempt 6: Something with Anaheim Chiles
Dish: I didn't know what I wanted to make, but I know I wanted Anaheim chiles. It turned out to be a scrambled omelet.
Preparation: I was thinking of stuffing the chile but read about roasting them over an open flame in The Joy of Cooking and being the fire bug I am, knew I had to try that. I roasted the chile in the gas stove flame for a couple of minutes and scraped off the skin. Slicing, cleaning and dicing the chiles, I diced an amount of onion to match and chopped up a fair amount of fresh parsley. I added butter in a pan and caramelized the onions and added the chiles while I beat three eggs with the parsley and a handful of mild cheddar cheese. Pouring in the egg mixture, I folded and mixed the onions and chiles and tried to make an omelet. It broke when I folded so it ended up being more of a scrambled egg style dish. I served with about a teaspoon of capers.
Summary: Again an off-the-cuff dish that turned out well. No real mistakes and roasting the chiles was both fun and very tasty.
Outcome: Really quite good. The roasted chiles were awesome and the capers added the needed touch of salt and a counter of sweet. The caramelized onions didn't add any flavor but gave body and the fresh parsley was a great background taste.
What will the next dish be? I don't know, but I now know that a very good large chopping knife is next on the shopping list! I also know that this is just the beginning of a very interesting and fun chapter in my life.
]]>This is the first of several changes I plan for Hilo Eats. Other possible changes include, in random order:
* Instant reporting of "bad reviews" (reviews that are themselves bad, not reviews that say a place is bad).
* Easy reporting of closed establishments.
* Hide old reviews by default.
* iPhone/mobile version.
* Comment on a review, not just a place.
* Tagging for instant filtering.
* Expanding the scope to other areas including Keaau (after tagging is done).
I'm also open to suggestions. Please send them via the Hilo Eats Contact page.
]]>We're back from our Alaskan cruise honeymoon, and I must admit that there is something to this whole honeymoon concept. Being pampered amongst the glaciers and pristine wilderness that is southeast Alaska was a wonderful way to spend a week. More food than could be eaten, more activities than could be participated in, enough excursions to fill the entire summer, and the option to just sleep it all off was a fantastic luxury that I'm glad I didn't miss.
There's so much to say but I want to mention a few things for anyone considering such a journey. Some of this may not apply to all cruise lines; we were on the Holland America Line ms Zaandam--a wonderful ship.
1. Do not let anyone dissuade you from packing long johns. It's cold, cold, cold. I wish I had brought my Capilene underwear.
2. Do not take the layering suggestion for granted. Did I mention it's cold?
3. Take several pairs of "all occasions" shoes, A.K.A. sneakers/trainers.
4. Take a windbreaker, along with several sweaters or jackets. It can get chilly.
5. Wal-Mart isn't "just two blocks away" in SE Alaska, so bring your amenities with you.
6. The shops around the ports are tourist traps. You'll still need to go in to get your omiyage, but the more prepared you are for "touristy", the easier it is to see through the kitsch.
7. Do not think about the calorie count. Eat. A lot. You can't help it; food is everywhere, so enjoy every ounce. The food was great and there's a good variety.
8. Afternoon tea/coffee is not to be missed.
9. Even if you're not a show person, go to the evening shows. They're not that long and it's amazing to see what they do on a relatively small stage. There's a fair variety as well.
10. Do not be discouraged by the number of things to do. You won't be able to do everything.
11. It's cold even in summer. The only time I wasn't bundled up was when I was tucked in bed with the A/C off.
12. Enjoy the beautiful scenery. This is what they mean when they say to stop and smell the roses.
Go. It's worth it. Glacier Bay is amazing. The train ride in Skagway is fun.
Seriously. Go.
]]>A couple of first impressions:
First, regarding the virtual keyboard, I easily see how people can get frustrated with it. But those people must have a monumentally short attention span or absolutely zero patience. I'm making mistakes, but they're easily correctable with a minimum of fuss and time. I think those naysayers are probably looking for faults rather than giving the device an honest chance. My only gripe thus far is that I keep confusing the backspace and return keys.
Second, it's a bit heavier than I expected (versus my RAZR), but it is far from being too heavy.
About three hours of near constant use and I have no regrets! Yay!
Now back to the wedding plans...
]]>Time marched on to the beat of a drummer missing both drum sticks and the drum set itself, and 6pm came with a brief excitement which quickly waned as the queue tightened and halted. Entertained by the evening traffic and a few pedestrians--most looking at the throng of gadget geeks with a mixture of puzzlement, awe and calls of "what are you waiting for?"--I plodded along with the hope of returning home triumphant from the minor achievement of patience.
Night fell as I neared the final steps to the closely guarded and locked portal to an otaku's delight. Fatigue from standing for hours wore on all our faces and the jokes that supplies had depleted became more frequent and rang more of prophecy than mirth.
I fought back the anticipation and anxiousness with inane banter with my fellow enthusiasts, much in the way seat mates on a flight prepare for hours of close quarters with strangers. Talk turned to hypotheticals; "are you going to settle for a 4g model if the 8g are gone?" "Maybe I should have just ordered online."
Few were surprised when the first call rang out, "all of the 8g models are gone." Groans of disappointment and undoubted inaudible curses emanated from stragglers now numbering fewer than 30. Several immediately made for their cars, having exhausted their patience. Most, however, remained; hoping.
Scant minutes later, one of the badged sentries could be seen making a visible head count, only to confer with a counterpart on the inside and report to the faithful that two devices remained. He offered condolences in the form of a glimpse of what remained for us: we could order either device at the store and have it shipped priority, but with no insight as to when such a feat would be executed.
A step or two later, I entered the bright, nearly empty vault. Quicktime videos played at the entrance, taunting me with features, screenshots and near promises that life could be no better were I simply to grasp an iPhone in my tired hands. I was met at the counter by a surprisingly (and refreshingly) cheerful keeper of the gadget gold.
"I only have one left and it's a 4g model."
Should I? Would I? Will I compromise my daydreams and go for less than I wanted? What would I be missing, were I to settle for less?
Then, a brief moment of clarity washed over me. I'll live. The device is not a life saver, nor is it even a necessity. In the grand scheme of "it all," I have so many things to be thankful for that this setback is nothing more than a failed attempt at being one of the few to own something that millions will eventually.
I didn't lose. There is no race.
I placed my order for an 8g iPhone and will certainly eagerly await it. But, more importantly, I'll continue with joy and excitement for my wedding in a week. I've waited 30 some-odd years for that and look forward to how great it will be!
]]>I will walk through some of the steps for building a short web form, however the List Processor can be applied to any number of things not programming related. The form in this example will take a name, email and 5 URLs.
The Line Processor Interface
First, let's look at the tool itself. There are three sections:
The mask section has an additional save to button feature which I will cover later.
The List
The list of items contains each element I want to do something with. For my example, I have a list of field names that I'll be creating as HTML entities for the web page form.
name email url1 url2 url3 url4 url5
(Line Processor could even help create the list sequence url1..url5 but with such a short list I just typed them.)
The Mask
I now specify what I want to do with the list. For the example, I am creating HTML code, so the mask is:
<input type="text" name="{{LINE}}" id="{{LINE}}" value="" />
Clicking the Go! button will then make a copy of the mask for each line in the list and put the list element in wherever "{{LINE}}" appears.
This produces the following:
<input type="text" name="name" id="name" value="" /> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="" /> <input type="text" name="url1" id="url1" value="" /> <input type="text" name="url2" id="url2" value="" /> <input type="text" name="url3" id="url3" value="" /> <input type="text" name="url4" id="url4" value="" /> <input type="text" name="url5" id="url5" value="" />
Save a Mask to a Button
I'm now going to temporarily save this mask to a button via Save mask to button. I stress temporary because the new button created will disappear when I leave the Line Processor page or close the browser window.
The mask is now saved to a button so that I can recall the mask as saved after making changes to the mask. This is perfect for creating several masks before I have my list the way I want it. For example, I create this next mask to use in the processing of the form:
validateNotEmpty($_POST['{{LINE}}'], '{{LINE}} cannot be blank.');
I save this mask to a button and can break name into first_name and last_name and just recall and apply each of the masks I had saved.
In Conclusion
Manually editing repetitively is tedious, boring and prone to erorrs and search and replace can only go so far. This is especially true when working with a changing list of items. The Line Processor really makes batch modifications to a long set of items easy--especially when combined with another great tool, the Online Clipboard.
Speaking of Twitter, I really like the free Twitterrific app but have been having lots of problems with connectivity and lost tweets. I will post a tweet with Twitterrific, it will show up on the Twitter site and usually in Twitterrific, but when I make a new tweet, the old one simply disappears! Ponderous. I'm not entirely convinced it's a problem with Twitterrific as Twitter has been making quite a few changes with their explosive growth.
Wedding plans are continuing... though there is still a lot more to work on.
For work, I've been playing around with some object-oriented PHP but am not convinced all my projects should be OOP--especially since we don't currently have a production server with PHP5.
]]>Sherrie Ann and I are engaged to be married this summer (July)!
James and I launched a new site design for the UH Hilo web site. It has been quite successful and popular.
The numerous and inconsistent network problems in the new office have finally settled down. It has taken quite a few measures to see them quashed, but life at work is more-or-less back to normal.
I finally made the push and reached level 50 in City of Heroes--quite a feat when soloing. Now I'm trying out the Peacebringer and Warshade archetypes and both are quite interesting. I haven't decided which I like better yet.
I've finally figured out how to get an SVN repository functioning and am slowly building my PHP form validation library using SVN (and possibly NaturalDocs).
]]>My team and I are now in a work space at least three times as large as the one we moved out of. We have some new furniture, including some nice chairs that are actually meant to be sat in for a full day's duration. We also have about 45 sq. ft. of window space (three 5'×3') windows. The view isn't fantastic but who cares? They're windows! We're also within minutes walking distance from Subway, Akmal, Soontaree's, H&K, 7-11, and more. (See Hilo Eats if not familiar with these.) Oh, and parking isn't a problem now, woot!
The drawback to being off-campus is of course the lack of convenience. I can't just hop over to the cafeteria, coffee cart, or bookstore. Also, since Sherrie Ann and I carpool, our commute time has doubled (to about 30 minutes a day :D ). I also can't meet with faculty/staff very easily, but that wasn't a daily event so it's not too bad.
All-in-all, the move is a positive one. We'll see how it pans out over the next (projected) five years.
As for the rest of life, it's about time to start xmas shopping. Happy birthday to Jr. and Austin. And Happy Holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and/or end of 2006.
]]>More after the move.
]]>Of course, there are cheaper avenues and much more expensive ones. But damn. 25 lbs. That's good times!
]]>Unless otherwise specified, all these are open source or freeware. Also, the list is kind of in order of "importance," but not strictly so.
Of course, Mac OS X comes with some very good built-in apps that I highly recommend: Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, Safari, Address Book. iCal is a good program, but I prefer to use Google's calendar system.
There are some other "standard" apps which I would also install on a Windows machine: Skype, Google Earth, MS Office, Opera (browser).
Finally, the following sites are great resources for Mac software:
Open source download list - Open Source Mac
Latest versions of software - Mac Update
Apple-oriented blog (by the Engadget folks) - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
New software (not just Mac) - Download Squad