Science, Mad. And some movies.
Generic “this is what I did today” posts. Could also be comedic/dramatic bits or reviews of something.
BRAIN: watching a steady stream of edutainment about the Neolithic
VINEET: iowa?
Maybe my obsession was related to the Republican caucuses — after all, these documentaries are about human progress.
The one I liked best was “Stories from the Stone Age,” an Australian production which follows the birth of agriculture through the beginning of the copper age.
More Paleolithic but good was “Ice World,” which was American and therefore shorter and less informative but more dramatic.
Village Voice had a piece about the Gräpple, which is funny because they aren’t exactly new.
When the grapples first appeared a few years ago I thought there might be more flavors on the way… not yet though!
I speculate what happened was: it’s about 5+ years ago, and apples are tending to taste the same. With lame apples, what if we dress them up a bit and make them grape flavored? The Grapple is born.
But in the next few years, the heirloom apple industry takes off. Now there is more taste and more apple variety. The demand for a different-flavored apple is met without injecting weird juice into them. Thus, the Grapple remains a novelty.
What do you think?
every episode ends with Ivan Dobsky killing someone
sometimes to get back into jail
so the story elements are
open on the jail
he’s being released
Mr Jennings describes all his posessions
Ivan says the horrible thing they did to him to get a confession
Ivan is on Mr Hoppy
Ivan talks to 3 people trying to buy things that no longer exist
sometimes one of them rips him off
then Ivan meets someone who will be his victim
then Ivan ends up back at jail
finis!
ZACH: Nice
I got to hang out with custom jewelry designer David Thorp. He had made sour apple-flavored marshmallows for his guests!
David showed us some new pieces he had, including a couple crazy gold rings with wood on the inside – a “secret” for the bride and groom alone.
In Cole Valley, police officers responding to calls of a masked gunman holding up the Alpha Market on the corner of Cole and Parnassus discovered a much more pedestrian crime in progress. When cops arrived on the scene and overpowered the masked gunman, who was behind the counter pointing his gun at the ceiling, what they discovered was 41-year-old city resident (and struggling actor?) holding a replica weapon
DEE: I think that the things that I’ve filmed with [you]
DEE: would be much more suspect
DEE: if the cops were to assume the action was real
BRAIN: Word
BRAIN: The difference being we made a point to shoot in West Oakland
BRAIN: where there are no people
BRAIN: or laws
Thieves work alone – they don’t really have a place in your organization except as independent agents. Contractors maybe?
Obviously they won’t do as combat troops, except maybe as snipers or scouts (see Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000’s “Ratling snipers).
You need smart hobbits as intelligence officers and analysts, support crew for vehicles – they weigh less for transport and eat less of your supplies.
KIRBY: Major shortcoming of New England: Chow mein doesn’t have noodles in it. I need to re-learn AmeriChinese food vocabulary.
OJ: It would be awesome if the noodle-less chow mein wasn’t stir fried, either!
While the simplified Chow Mein (ç‚’é¢) I guess is just “fried plate” or something, 炒麵 is definitely “fried noodle.” As I understand it, the goo you get on the East Coast is meant to have crispy fried noodle on the top of it. Without that part… that’s some “unclear on the concept” right there.
The standard has already been set, and on the East Coast even: in 1920 Sinclair Lewis wrote in his book “Main Street”:
Before they were quite tired of the concert Carol led them in a dancing procession to the dining-room, to blue bowls of chow mein, with Lichee nuts and ginger preserved in syrup.
None of them save that city-rounder Harry Haydock had heard of any Chinese dish except chop sooey. With agreeable doubt they ventured through the bamboo shoots into the golden fried noodles of the chow mein; and Dave Dyer did a not very humorous Chinese dance with Nat Hicks; and there was hubbub and contentment.
…which you can see argues for the East Coast version of the dish, with the crispy fried noodles. Apparently this is the Hong Kong style.
Irregardlessly [ 🙂 ] if you order Chow Mein in CA you’re going to get slick floppy fried noodles.
McRib not as good as I recall, and the fries were just crispy starch. For the calories and fat etc I think I’ll stick with dim sum!
VINEET: Why do you hate America?
SAMIR: McRib huh?
BRAIN: yeah it was not good
BRAIN: it made me sorry for eating it
SAMIR: first time?
BRAIN: no I used to love that sandwich
BRAIN: when I saw it in Berlin I was very excited
BRAIN: it tasted the same but wasn’t as satisfying as I remmebererd
SAMIR: so, is the sauce good? or the meat itself?
BRAIN: the meat is a pork… stuff
BRAIN: formed into a rib cage shape
SAMIR: ha!
BRAIN: the sauce is a sweet BBQ sauce
BRAIN: the roll is a very soft white bread
BRAIN: maybe it’s because I’ve since had a real pulled pork sandwich
BRAIN: the McRib meat is a bit like the inside of a siu mai
BRAIN: …but with more chemicals I guess
BRAIN: I’m wondering if I’ll like the Teriyaki Makku when I finally get to eat it again, more than 10 years after I last had it
SAMIR: i don’t know what that is
BRAIN: although I might still stay away from it since it’s likely it would be made from US Beef
BRAIN: it’s in the same shape
BRAIN: the sauce is a McD’s teriyaki sauce
BRAIN: and it has Japanese mayo on it
BRAIN: on a bun
BRAIN: the more I think about it the more I think I should just make my own version of it, only using, you know… food
SAMIR: haha
Yesterday was halloween, and we set up a bunch of the 1950s machines in the driveway.
Diane dressed up in her “gold scene Magenta” outfit and handed out candy; I wore a labcoat and played a synthesizer installed in a coconut and let the kids play it. It was a big hit. We also had a fog machine with cooled fog (it hugs the ground better), a cauldron with water and dry ice, and a graveyard in our front lawn.
We gave out around 25 pounds of taffy we had ordered in bulk, in a secret plan to get our favorite obscure flavors for ourselves, since you can only order them in lots of 5 pounds.
Once several years ago when I was working at a startup with my friend Tim, and I told him I dreamed something about reading about a sports team and some online music – I think this was the moment just now and I was seeing the future again.
These are the two things I was just reading when this occurred to me:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/09/the_big_4_restaurant_specials.php
http://pitchfork.com/tv/special-presentation/1597-smith-westerns/2529-weekend/
Note: in my original feeling, it had something to do with pineapple or another fruit, or edible thing, which had music in it. I believe now that this was a reference to the Flaming Lips “gummy skull” USB art object.