Free-Range Chickens

Free-Range Chickens, by Simon Rich, is just a little thing, comprised of short takes on various themes (prehistoric times, animals, etc.). But it's funny all the way through. I had a lot of fun with it, and you will, too.

Lauriel's Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg

Directions: Combine all ingredients, mix well. Form cookies, place on cookie sheet, and make criss-cross pattern with a fork on each cookie. Bake at 350° F until done. (Serves --) Download recipe.

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Just finished reading the novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie Huston, on my Kindle (Kindle 1, still; surely you already know that I anxiously await my Kindle 2). I liked this one for lots of reasons. It was pretty funny in a lot of places, mostly because the main character is an Olympic-class smartass most of the time, and his dialog was hilarious. There was enough action (not too much, and well told), some mystery, interesting characters, and the excellent little quirk of putting it all into the context of trauma cleaning and the people who do that kind of work. See? Now your curiosity is piqued. Go read it, you'll enjoy it.

Kindle 2!

This morning I pre-ordered Amazon's Kindle 2. As you know, I'm a huge fan of the original. The Kindle 2 is slated for release on 24 Feb, and I guess it will come soon after that. It's likely that I'll be at C-SHALS 2009 when it arrives (why does it always have to happen that way?).

Web Coolness

Did you ever hear a song on the radio and wish you knew what song it was, so you could add it to your music collection? That happens to me a lot, and I notice that pretty much every time it does the DJ neglects to tell me.

Here's how the Web comes to the rescue. When I hear a song that I feel I must have, but I don't know what it is, I hit 'J' on my Blackberry to dial Jott. Jott is an online transcription service; I call Jott and say some stuff to them, and they transcribe what I say into various electronic forms (emails, online lists, etc.). It kind of goes like, "Ring...Who do you want to Jott?" "Myself." "Beep." "The Office is on tonight -- watch it!" Then I get an email that says, "The Office is on tonight. Watch it," or I can see the text online.

Then I found out about Nabbit. Nabbit knows the radio stations I listen to, and what they're playing at any given time. If I visit Nabbit with my mobile browser, I see a list of all my radio station presets, and I just need to choose one to see what it's playing at the time.

Which is cool enough, but here's where it gets cooler: Jott and Nabbit are buds. So I can Jott like this: "Ring...Who do you want to Jott?" "Nabbit." "Nabbit. Is that correct?" "Yes." "Beep." "KCLC." Jott transcribes my "KCLC" (the call letters of the radio station playing the song I like), sends it to Nabbit, Nabbit looks it up for me, and I get the name and artist of the song. Pretty sweet, right?