ted sez

El Pollo-style Chicken Marinade

2009-05-23T20:06:00.003-05:00

Here's the recipe for the wicked good El Pollo-style chicken I made the other night. The recipe calls for chicken pieces, but you can use boneless, skinless breasts as well. You should feel free to up the chili content. Make some of this up and serve it up on tortillas a la fajitas or something like that. Enjoy!

El Pollo Chicken Marinade (from the Orange County Register)

This Mexican chicken marinade is fruity with just a hint of spice, and is inspired by the El Pollo Loco ("the Crazy Chicken") chain of restaurants.

Ingredients:

6 ounces passion fruit juice (can substitute pineapple and/or orange juice)
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon oregano
⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ teaspoon mild chili pepper, e.g. ancho
8 drops yellow food coloring
1 tablespoon corn oil
4 pounds frying chicken, cut up

Directions: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken. Measure out 1/4 cup marinade and reserve for basting while grilling. Place chicken in a shallow glass baking dish and cover with marinade. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, turning at least once.

Remove chicken from refrigerator 45 minutes before cooking time. Drain chicken and grill over medium coals for 25 to 35 minutes or until no traces of pink color remain, turning every 10 minutes. Baste frequently with the reserved 1/4 cup marinade while cooking. (Serves 6)

I used ancho chili powder (from Penzey's) and it turned out great. Ancho has no heat to speak of, but good flavor.

The Whiskey Rebels

2009-05-17T11:02:00.003-05:00

Not everybody likes historical novels, but I certainly do, and I certainly liked The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss. The story is set 10 years or so after the end of the Revolutionary War, and was inspired by the events of that War and by those of the Whiskey Rebellion of the mid-1790s. One thing I really liked about the book was that the narrative alternates between the stories of a former spy of George Washington's whose reputation has been ruined, and a smart and resourceful frontier woman who, with her husband and their friends, manage to make the best of dismal circumstances by learning how to make superior whiskey. The first hint of the two stories coming together doesn't happen until almost exactly a quarter of the way through the book, and they steadily become more and more intertwined through the end. In addition to these characters, the author used a good number of real historical figures in the book, such as Hamilton, Washington, Burr, Duer, and other names of which you've heard since grade school (OK, maybe not so much Duer, but this is why we read such books!). I thought this novel was very well-written, every bit as informative as it was entertaining, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Do I want a Kindle DX?

2009-05-09T08:08:00.002-05:00

Amazon will release the Kindle DX this summer (it's available for pre-order now). You will know I'm a huge fan of the Kindle, so you might be wondering whether I'm going to rush out and buy one of the new ones. The answer is, nope. I really like the size of the Kindle 2, and I wouldn't want to carry around something as big as the Kindle DX (my Kindle 2 is with me pretty much everywhere).

Now, some of you parents out there will nod your heads in recognition when I say that my son goes to high school laboring under a backpack full of a good 45+ pounds of textbooks and various paraphernalia. As the Kindle DX weighs in at a bit over a pound, and is aimed at least in part at the textbook genre, do you think if I were him that I'd be interested in one? You bet I would be. I would love it if my kids could have all of their textbooks on a Kindle DX, and so would they. So, Amazon, if you're listening, if you work it out so that their textbooks are available on the Kindle DX (btw, you can pretty much skip anything from Texas, as far as I'm concerned -- no offense, Amy!), I'll take two.

Afraid

2009-05-09T07:50:00.002-05:00

I read Afraid, by Jack Kilborn, on my Kindle 2. About halfway through (OK, at exactly 50% according to my Kindle) I thought I might just quit reading it. I'm not too prudish, but this book is chock full of some pretty sick sadism. It's all part of the story, so it's not gratuitous per se, but I really don't think that this book would be for everyone. I certainly don't think it's my cup of tea. But, I have to give Kilborn some props: he can (and does) pile it on relentlessly, and some of the action scenes truly rocket along. I'm going to look for more of his work.

The Book Thief

2009-05-03T17:16:00.002-05:00

OK, I just finished reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief on my Kindle 2, and I have to tell you I feel it is one of the best books I've ever read (thanks for recommending it, Kelly!). My favorite kind of fiction, where a lot of the time you're really reading poetry instead of prose. The Book Thief is the story of a girl in WWII Germany, narrated by someone you've heard about, and I will tell you no more about it except that it was so well written that I couldn't put it down. I hope you'll read it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Well? Why are you still here? Go read it!

ted's Black Beans & Rice

2009-04-19T19:35:00.003-05:00

A delicious, nutritious Caribbean favorite. There are many recipes; this is one I made up on rainy afternoon is St. Louis to serve up with some jerk chicken. Super quick and simple, and a big hit.

Ingredients:

2 servings white rice, cooked

1 15-ounce can black beans, with liquid

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning, to taste (can make your own mix of cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt and garlic)

2 cloves garlic, minced

water

Directions:
Cook the rice as you usually do. While the rice is cooking, open the beans and pour the entire contents out into a medium sauce pan. Add the spices, adjusting the amounts to taste, and stir.

When the rice is finished cooking, add it to the beans and spice mixture and stir. Add water if necessary to make it just a bit saucy. Put the pan on medium heat and heat the rice through. Serve.

(Serves 4)

Add a little chicken broth to the rice as you cook it to make it a bit more flavorful.

You can find Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning at http://www.slapyamama.com/. I don't work for those guys, but that's the best Cajun seasoning in the world (thanks to Joe Horton for turning me on to it!). Have some more Slap Ya Mama on hand in case this recipe isn't spicy enough as it is.

Happens Every Day

2009-04-05T11:06:00.003-05:00

After making omelettes du fromage et jambon this morning for my kids and myself, I finished Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story, by Isabel Gillies (which I read on my Kindle 2). This is a quick read, not the kind of nonfiction I usually read but really good, I thought. It's the story of a woman with a storybook life, and how she was robbed of it. It's the best kind of story, in that it's simple, powerful, and so well-told and easy to relate to that it almost seems familiar. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope you will, too.

Irish Beef Hand Pies

2009-03-29T21:42:00.002-05:00

This St. Patrick's Day, tuck the makings of traditional beef-and-potato stew into flaky pastries you can bake straight from the freezer.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 head green cabbage, shredded
1/2 pound red potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1 pound ground beef sirloin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
coarse sea salt
ground pepper
all purpose white flour, for rolling
2 9-inch pie crusts

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium; add cabbage and potatoes. Cook until beginning to brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Add beef; cook, breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, Worcestershire, thyme, and 1 cup water. Cover, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Lightly mash mixture with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool completely.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each crust into a 14-inch square; cut each into 4 equal squares. Place 1/2 cup filling on one half of each square, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the filling. Brush borders with water; fold dough over filling to enclose. Crimp edges with a fork to seal. With a paring knife or scissors, cut 3 small vents in each.

Transfer pies to 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets; bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.

Notes

Think about adding some peas and carrots to the mix.

To Freeze: Prepare through step 2. Arrange unbaked pies on a baking sheet (they should not touch); freeze until firm, about 1 hour. Wrap each pie in foil. Place in a resealable plastic bag; freeze up to 2 months.

To Bake from Frozen: Proceed with step 3, increasing baking time to 28 to 30 minutes.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/irish-beef-hand-pies?autonomy_kw=hand%20pies&rsc=header_8Source: Martha Stewart

Cincinnati Chili

2009-03-22T09:34:00.002-05:00

From The Kitchn: "Cincinnati chili - a blend of cinnamon, hot pepper, cumin, and, yes, chocolate. It's not a gimmick or a mole-wannabe. Cincy chili is rich treat all its own. When made well it has a smoky, elusive blend of flavors. Cinnamon and cocoa play supporting roles, lifting the other flavors and bringing out the taste of the meat. It's addictive, and usually it's eaten over spaghetti. Those Ohioans love their chili - apparently there are more chili parlors in Cincinnati than any other American city! (Move over Texas...)"

"The combination of spaghetti and chili without beans may be sacrilegious to those with other notions of chili, but this is worth a try on its own merits. It's also a quick and filling weeknight dinner."

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
2 tablespoons chili powder

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon chipotle pepper
1 teaspoon salt

2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken or beef broth
½ cup water

spaghetti, cooked
cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
kidney beans, (optional)

Directions: Film a large, heavy frying pan with olive oil. Heat over medium high heat and when hot add the beef, minced onion and garlic, and chili powder. Sprinkle in crushed red pepper to taste. Cook for about eight minutes or until the meat is browned.

In a separate bowl combine the cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, chipotle pepper, and salt. Add and stir fry for another couple minutes until fragrant.

Add the bay leaves, Worcestshire sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, broth and water. Turn heat to low and simmer for an hour.

Serve over spaghetti with minced onion, hot kidney beans, and cheddar cheese.
(Serves 8)

"Our recipe departs from some authentic elements (there is, of course, much debate over what constitutes truly authentic Cincinnati chili). Many traditional recipes don't brown the meat - they boil or simmer it instead. We like the browned, deep flavor though.
Also, to experience this truly, you have to try it all five ways:
• Two-way: Spaghetti topped with chili (the basics)
• Three-way: Chili, spaghetti, and finely grated cheddar cheese (lots of it!)
• Four-way: Chili, spaghetti, cheese, and minced onions
• Five-way: Chili, spaghetti, cheese, minced onions, and hot kidney or chili beans"

See http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/recipe-cincinnati-chili-041148.

The original recipe called for crumbling 2 dried red peppers into the meat/onion/garlic/chili powder mix as it cooks. I just put crushed red pepper in, and it worked well, so I modified the recipe a bit.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

2009-03-19T20:57:00.003-05:00

The other book I finished while I was on vacation was When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. You've heard David Sedaris on This American Life (the best show on radio, IMHO), and other places. This was my favorite of Sedaris's books. All of the stories in it were interesting, funny, and memorable. Sedaris has a distinctive voice, and while I'm reading along I sometimes like to have his voice be the voice in my head as I go -- makes it even funnier. Sedaris is a master storyteller, with a wealth of eccentric experiences from which to draw. I hope you give this one a try; you'll enjoy it.

Contagious

2009-03-19T20:44:00.002-05:00

While I was on vacation in Florida last week, I finished Contagious by Scott Sigler. Contagious is the sequel to Infected: A Novel, and it's a real sizzler. I couldn't put this one down. Infected was a good read, but Contagious was just awesome. Fun from start to finish. Go read it.

The Slave Ship

2009-03-07T18:34:00.004-06:00

Just finished The Slave Ship: A Human History, by Marcus Rediker. One of the more interesting things I learned from reading this book was about myself: I learned that I've had kind of a grammar-school conceptualization of the Atlantic slave trade, and that has not been serving me well in terms of putting that shameful part of the world's history in its proper perspective. I've long known that history is first and foremost a product of whoever writes it (Churchill had a particularly good grasp of this idea), and it follows that the history books we use to educate our children have their particular points of view and biases, and that these in turn can (and do) abuse what might otherwise be a fairly accurate account of what actually happened in the past. Of course, as a historian, Dr. Rediker has his own take on this story, and he is a self-proclaimed activist, but his scholarship here is strong and convincing. I think this book is well worth reading, and I hope you'll read it.

Dr. Rediker won the George Washington Book Prize for The Slave Ship. This prize is given to honor the "most important new book about America's founding era."

New Hotness

2009-03-01T20:18:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, upon my return from CSHALS 2009 (which was terrific, thank you very much!), I got to open up ("unbox" is the cool term for it) my new Kindle 2. You probably already know that I was (am) a huge fan of my old Kindle, and that I was a pretty early adopter of it.

Anyway, I think the Kindle 2 is a tangible improvement on all aspects of the original. I really like the new form factor; I haven't once pushed a button I didn't intend to push in the first place. The 5-way controller is just right for the interface, and while the original scroll wheel was well done I'm happier with the 5-way.

I like the slidey power switch at the top. Turns it on, turns it off, puts it to sleep, wakes it up, and resets it. Simple. And I think the Kindle 2 goes to sleep and wakes up faster than the original.

I was a little surprised when I got my Kindle 2 that it wasn't pre-registered for me. As an early adopter who ordered before 10th Feb, I got moved to the top of the list (so it actually arrived Wednesday, not Saturday), and maybe they just didn't have the time to do it. No matter, it took just a few minutes, and I got the opportunity to clean up my content a little bit (it's so nice that Amazon keeps all that stuff for me online).

I also got the Amazon Kindle 2 leather cover, and I really like it. I also liked the quirky cover that came with the original, because it really was just perfect for the Kindle, but the Kindle 2 cover is a very nice piece of work. I'm pretty sure my new Kindle isn't going to come loose from its cover occasionally anymore, as the new hinge is pretty clever and solid.

I loved my old Kindle. I love my Kindle 2 even more.

Free-Range Chickens

2009-02-14T16:33:00.002-06:00

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

2009-02-14T12:55:00.001-06:00

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

2009-02-14T10:31:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-02-10T20:50:00.002-06:00

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

2009-02-04T08:09:00.005-06:00

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?

Oooh, That's Sharp!

2009-01-19T11:20:00.004-06:00

The lone entry on my 2008 Christmas list was a Global 24-cm chef's knife, and I was lucky enough to get it. I have to say, it is not like any other knife I've ever used. I'm just getting interested in cooking, really, and I don't have much experience -- this is my first real chef's knife. I now have all kinds of respect for Japanese steel. This knife's job is to part matter, and it does it incredibly well. And it does it without prejudice, happily parting human flesh along with anything else that gets in its way. You may surmise, and correctly, that I found this out the hard way. My chef's knife is like a lightsaber, and I guess "Slater" is not a Jedi name.

The Good Thief

2009-01-19T11:07:00.003-06:00

Just finished reading The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, on my Kindle. A terrific book, I thought. An adventure story full of action, mystery, likable rogues, pretty nasty villains, and some imagery that I think will stay with me forever. Every single character was flawed, as all of us are, but it was easy to like the good guys and hope that they found what they were looking for. Read, and enjoy!

Letters of Mozart

2009-01-02T12:30:00.002-06:00

Another book I read on my Kindle over my break was The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Vol. I. Turns out that for all his genius Mozart was a real guy, who caught colds and got in trouble from his dad and sometimes failed in doing the things we know him for today, almost 220 years after his death. A fun read -- I'm going to look for Vol. II.

Flood

2009-01-02T11:51:00.003-06:00

While I was in California for the Holidays, I read the thriller Flood, by Andrew Vachss, on my Kindle, and was duly thrilled. I believe it was a free download, and boy was it ever worth the price. Nicely done for a first novel, maybe due at least in part to some of the author's real-life experience. I found it to be pretty engrossing throughout, although there was a sort of Gilligan's Island Reunion part toward the end that I found to be a little unlikely, where most of the characters (each of whom is a loner and a misfit in their own ways) get together to do a job. Enjoy!

The Manhattan Transfer

2008-12-20T09:18:00.002-06:00

Last night, Kelly and I went to see The Manhattan Transfer give a fantastic Holiday show at The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. They were absolutely amazing. I've been listening to them and admiring them since high school (yeah, that long ago; the current line-up started in 1972), so it was a real treat for me to finally see them live in concert. In the parlance of Mason and Emily, they were "tight." I just love to see (and hear) that kind of fierce talent. Go see them when you get a chance, or go to iTunes and check them out.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Samurai

2008-12-15T20:13:00.006-06:00

I enjoyed a great karate seminar last weekend. Sensei Toru Shimoji was hosted by Sensei Karl Burgart of the Tradition Karate Association of Wildwood, MO. Sensei Shimoji is 5th Dan. The seminar was phenomenal. He is a tremendous athlete and his karate is spectacular to behold. One of the things that impressed me most was how learned he is. As he was talking to us about ways to improve our karate, he easily used examples from physics, anatomy, and even some molecular biology. I know he's a sculptor. To me, he seemed just like the samurai warrior-poets that you read about. We need more people like him in the world, I think.

Delicious Seafood Pasta Fra Diavolo

2008-12-07T20:44:00.010-06:00

Tonight I made some delicious Seafood Pasta Fra Diavolo in my cool new Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron Round French Oven with Cover (more on this below). I had some pasta fra diavolo from Brio Tuscan Grille earlier in the week, and I decided to make some myself this weekend. I suspect the stuff Brio made had some cream in it, but the stuff I made was pretty good, and it had seafood (shrimp, calamari, and scallops) instead of chicken which is always a plus in my cookbook.

If you decide to make some yourself (it's so easy), here are a couple of pointers. First, I used half as much crushed red pepper as was called for in the recipe, and it was still too spicy for my family (for me, it was just pleasantly warm).

Second, instead of basil I used Penzey's Tuscan Sunset, and I think that was a good substitution. More complicated, but really tasty.

Third, I used mini penne instead of linguine.

Finally, I added a bit more shrimp than was called for. There was plenty of room for it. The scallops were terrific, though; I should've splurged on those instead.

My new Dutch oven is my first ever. It's made of enameled cast iron, and it's a spectacular vessel. I highly recommend it. The color of mine is Dune ("... Arrakis... desert planet..."), if you would like to cleave to my ways as closely as possible. ;-)

Bon appetit!

Churrascaria!

2008-12-02T14:42:00.003-06:00

Today my group and I went out to lunch at Bacana Brasil, a really nice churrascaria in Chesterfield. Places such as these serve churrasco-style grilled meats, and lots of them. They have to place a special sign at your table so you can turn off the flow of grilled meat when you can't take it any more. So much meat is served, in fact, that I began to fret about various meat-related disaster scenarios, like "meat exhaustion," or the "meat death of the universe." Anyway, even though you really have to be a good carnivore to enjoy them, churrascarias are great. If you've never been, you should find one and try it out.

Special thanks to Scott Patterson for taking me to my first churrascaria feast, not so long ago in Seattle.

Best Christmas Album of All Time

2008-11-30T21:28:00.002-06:00

My vote for Best Christmas Album of All Time goes to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you don't agree, I will fight you.*

* Not really. :-)

Brain Rules...Rules!

2008-11-30T10:00:00.005-06:00

Last night I finished reading Dr. John Medina's Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. I really enjoyed this one. I'm sometimes a bit skeptical about popular science books, being geeky enough to enjoy the more in-depth works. This book did not disappoint, though. Medina gave us some fun personal anecdotes, and tied them in very well with the latest in brain research (much of which I didn't know about). All of this was organized into 12 rules, which I thought was a nice way to do it. Highly recommended.

I read this on my Kindle (I guess I read everything on my Kindle these days), and I should point out two potential issues. First, there is text missing from the Kindle edition in half a dozen or so different places. I don't think I missed too much, but maybe I did, and it did interrupt the flow. Amazon is aware of this problem, but I haven't heard anything smacking of resolution on this topic from them.

The other issue is that the physical book has a DVD that comes with it. I'd be surprised if the DVD had more than what you find on the Web, but I don't know.

Go read Brain Rules now.

Neptune Made Me Cross

2008-11-30T09:48:00.004-06:00

I recently finished reading Neptune Crossing by Jeffrey Carver. Actually, I gave up on it, because I couldn't get into it at all. I think that devotees of scifi will maybe enjoy it, but not me.

This book was made available for the Kindle for free, at least for a time (it's not available for Kindle at Amazon.com), which is how I ended up reading it. Maybe it's a "loss leader," and not the author's best work. I do like the strategy of making a book free for the Kindle to try to attract readers to the author's other books. I think it would be cost-prohibitive to try this with physical books. I hope it's successful for the authors who try it.

My Favorite Turkey Sandwich

2008-11-28T18:07:00.002-06:00

So easy, and so delicious. Take some of that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, chop it up into little bits, and add enough mayo to get it all to more or less stick together. Add some fresh ground pepper to taste (I like Penzey's Quatre Poivre), some kosher salt to taste, and then put in (also to taste) some Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder. Mix that all up and put a healthy dollop of it on your favorite sandwich bread, toasted or untoasted. Try some lettuce on there, if you like. Bon appetit!

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

2008-10-05T08:09:00.003-05:00

Stayed up late last night to finish Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Loved it. I haven't really ever read another novel quite like it. It's as bookish a book as I've ever read, complete with tons of citations (some real, some not) for all kinds of quotes and other things. It's a mystery story, with clues sprinkled throughout, so it's good to pay attention as you go. But it was a great read, with some writing that I thought was just brilliant. I'm looking forward to the author's next book.

Absolutely Scary

2008-09-14T16:36:00.003-05:00

I drove my son and two of his friends home from tennis this afternoon. We passed an Obama sign in someone's yard, and one of these friends enlightened us all in this way: he said that we shouldn't vote for Obama, because "'Barack Obama' is a Muslim name," and "Muslims fly airplanes into buildings."

I can't even tell you how angry, and sad, and anxious this made me. Forget about the Muslim name part, that's just irrelevant. Here's a kid who doesn't even know what Islam is, or how it's different from Christianity (his own religion -- surprised?), or, more importantly, how it's the same. When I mentioned that he should maybe learn a little bit more about the world before he talked like that, he said he didn't want to know. He said the world is a terrible place, and he didn't need to know anything about it.

Thirteen or fourteen years old, this kid, and already so filled up with hate, and so unbelievably ignorant. I asked him where he got all this stuff, and he said, "my family." Can you imagine? What kind of contribution is this dunce going to make to our civilization? How far will ignorance, xenophobia, and hate get us as we try to help our neighbors around the world and be good stewards of the only planet we've got (whatever your superstitions might be)? His family ought to be ashamed of themselves. Or maybe I'm ashamed enough for all of them. We should all be.

Execution

2008-09-14T06:38:00.004-05:00

Just finished reading Execution (which you may have noticed already if you've been following me on Shelfari). And the verdict? Not so good.

I had to read Execution for work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have finished it. It brought to mind a great article I read in 2006 in the Atlantic Monthly (thank you Mike Lawton for turning me on to that excellent magazine), called "The Management Myth." I quote Matthew Stewart:

According to my scientific sampling, you can save yourself from reading about 99 percent of all the management literature once you master this dialectic between rationalists and humanists. The Taylorite rationalist says: Be efficient! The Mayo-ist humanist replies: Hey, these are people we’re talking about!

Execution belongs in the rationalist camp, the idea being that you can't just be a management-strategy guy, you actually have to make sure that stuff gets done. I never would have thought of that. I'm not saying that I, as a manager, couldn't do better at that particular aspect of my job (who of us couldn't?); I'm just saying that I didn't get much out of this book except the impression that the CEO contributors seem pretty pompous (yeah, I have no doubt that employees are carrying your handwritten notes of criticism around and showing them to their colleagues because they're so starstruck to have them from you, from you!) and the feeling that the authors maybe put too much emphasis on the somewhat controversial Six Sigma thing.

Ike Is Here

2008-09-14T06:34:00.002-05:00

The remnants of Hurricane Ike showed up this morning. Uninvited. My weather radio woke me up at 05.20-something with an obnoxious alarm, something about a flood warning and a wind advisory. And it sure is rainy and windy out there. Seems like it didn't take too long to get all the way up here to St. Louis.

Excellent Dream

2008-08-03T08:04:00.003-05:00

Sometime this morning I woke up laughing, which I am wont to do occasionally. I do it when I dream something funny, and I was certainly amused by this dream.

Imagine, dear readers, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of Seinfeld fame) standing in front of a steam table with a trumpet. Only one of the bins in the steam table has anything in it, and she's standing in front of that one.

What's in the steam table, you wonder? Well, start with a base of that delicious, sweet/spicy General Tso's sauce, and then add a big frog wearing a birthday hat and a smallish, thinnish tabby cat wearing a look of righteous indignation (both of these animals very much alive, in case you were concerned; I guess the steam table was not actually functioning).

Why the cat's look of righteous indignation, you wonder? Because Juia Louis-Dreyfus is merrily blowing random notes on her trumpet at them, while they were just minding their own business playing in the General Tso's sauce.

So, the part that made me laugh and woke me up was where the cat, still looking mortified that this woman would be blowing her trumpet at his amphibian friend and him, raises his goofy cat paw straight up in the air (you know how cats stick a leg straight up in the air while they're giving themselves a bath? Like that) and brings it down on Julia's arm with a wet, General Tso-ey smack.

See? Hilarious. Now, let the analyses begin.

Wild Swans

2008-07-27T17:17:00.002-05:00

My vacation read this week was Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang. I guess my take-home for this was that I just really had no idea. I had some vague notion of what happened under Mao, but really I had no idea what daily life must have been like (imagine having to spend your time ripping up the bourgeois grass from the yard, which would be one of the more innocuous things you might have to worry about during that time). Wild Swans is unique in that it takes you through three generations of women in China. Go read it.

I also intend to read Mao: The Untold Story by the same author together with her husband, but I'm holding out for the Kindle edition (hint hint). Wild Swans isn't available in a Kindle edition, so I was readin' it old-school. I picked it up at my favorite bookstore in all the world, Leelanau Books.

Now, back to Greenspan's book...

Oops, One More Uber-Tune

2008-07-27T08:12:00.005-05:00

Inevitably, I forgot an uber-tune. I have to add The Wings, by Gustavo Santaolalla, to the list. You'll find it on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack.

Uber-Tunes

2008-07-11T17:33:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I'll hear a song and it will really grab me. I'll listen to it on my iPod over and over again for a long time, and keep coming back to it over and over again. These songs are different from the songs that I just like; I obsess over these songs. Sometimes I know it's because I can sing them well; they're in the sweet spot of my vocal range and I can really belt it out (Afterglow and The Crane Wife 3 are like that). Others I'm not so sure about, but there's just something about them.

Anyway, I was thinking about these songs and I thought I'd make a list of them, and here's my list. I'm sure I've missed a couple, but maybe you'll find something you like in here.

Afterglow, by INXS
Face Down, by Katie Todd Band
Gravity, by Embrace
Hallelujah, by Jeff Buckley
Hear Me Out, by Frou Frou
Hide And Seek, by Imogen Heap
If You Were Here, by Cary Brothers
In The Sun, by Joseph Arthur
Intro - Svefn-g-Englar, by Sigur Ros
London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do), by Heather Nova
Such Great Heights, by Iron & Wine
The Crane Wife 3, by The Decemberists
Thinking About Tomorrow, by Beth Orton
World Spins Madly On, by The Weepies

Thanks, Mr. Roam

2008-07-10T22:22:00.002-05:00

I sort of criticized Dan Roam, the author of the excellent The Back of the Napkin, because he didn't email me back when I suggested that he make available on his website some cool laminated versions of some of his visual aids. Well, he has redeemed himself by making just the things I wanted available, for free; not laminated, but nice PDFs. Enjoy! And read the book.

Sorry, Dan, and thanks!

The Funniest Blog in the Whole Wide World

2008-07-07T21:35:00.003-05:00

The funniest blog in the whole wide world is that of The Bloggess, a sample of which is waiting to delight you at the other end of that link. It is not necessarily for the kids to read, but I find it so, so funny.

Down River

2008-07-07T21:30:00.002-05:00

Down River, by John Hart... excellent! I just couldn't put it down, read it in about a day. Go get it.

There Are Some Very Confused People Out There

2008-07-06T13:43:00.002-05:00

Sam Harris has written an amusing article. An excellent quote therefrom: "Rarely does one discover nonsense in such a pristine state." You can tell he's delighted and mortified at the same time by some of what he's found (as am I).

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2008-07-06T10:12:00.004-05:00

Just finished Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Best novel I've read in a long time; I highly recommend it. I must've missed out on some of it, because there's some Spanish in it that I couldn't read (being as shamefully monolingual as most of my fellow Americans), but I could figure most of that out and I do think it added to the narrative in a subtext kind of way. Not only was it a great read, but I also learned a lot about the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, and it prompted me to do a little homework about that on Wikipedia. So, go read it, and enjoy.

A Great Movie

2008-06-29T16:45:00.002-05:00

This weekend I watched the movie In Bruges, which instantly became one of my favorites of all time. I think anyone who knows me will know my favorite line the moment they hear it. I'll be buying a copy of this one when it becomes available.

Suite Française

2008-06-29T16:26:00.002-05:00

Just finished Suite Française, a novel by Irène Némirovsky. I really liked it. It was mostly about how some upper-middle-class French characters responded to Germany's invasion and occupation of France early in WWII. Excellent writing, great character development, really good stories. Sadly, the first appendix comprises a series of increasingly desperate letters between the author, her husband, and various friends, beginning around the time she was deported from France and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. (I find that kind of thing tough to read, but I also firmly believe that it needs to be read, and remembered). Her husband followed not long after her, but they never saw each other again after her deportation. Fortunately, their two daughters were hidden from the Germans and so survived the war.

A Terrible Glory (and some others)

2008-06-28T15:27:00.018-05:00

Quite a while ago, my Aunt Nancy suggested that I write about the books I read on my blog. I love to read, and my taste in books is a eclectic (though it tends to run toward non-fiction, historical stuff), so maybe you'll find something interesting in here. I read almost everything on my Kindle, too, so I'll probably add some Kindle-specific stuff in these kinds of posts.

The last book I read on my Kindle was A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan (mentioned in a previous post). I very much enjoyed it, although it does run long so if you're not interested in this kind of history then you might look for something more condensed. The treatment of Custer's demise is pretty cursory, but when you think about it there isn't much to be done about that; nobody in his regiment lived to tell the tale, so we're all a bit light on the details. The book was filled up with all kinds of interesting insight into the life and times of Custer, Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, and Crazy Horse. Thumbs up.

Here's a quick summary of the other books I've read on my Kindle since I bought it, and what I thought of them:

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold: Excellent novel; thumbs way up.

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf: Scary, but a must-read. Thumbs up.

The Ruins, by Scott Smith: A page-turner, as horror novels often are, by an author with a good track record, but... strange. Thumbs up, but maybe in a read-this-on-a-rainy-day-just-for-something-light kind of way.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely: Very cool book about the irrational behaviors we all display when we make various decisions. Lots of "oh yeah, I do that" throughout. Thanks for the recommendation, Enoch. Thumbs up.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson. Excellent book, just the kind of thing I really like, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Two thumbs way up.

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust. I really thought I was going to like this one, but I just can't say that I did. While it was interesting in spots, I thought it was repetitive, and I thought there was something of an attempt to inject profundity into something that just wasn't that profound. Thumbs sort-of-down.

Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories, by Steven Millhauser: Delightful book, start to finish. Highly recommend it. Two thumbs up.

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam. Very enjoyable book, but here's one where the Kindle falls down a bit. Most of the illustrations (which are kind of important in this book) were a little hard to see, although the author did a much better job of getting the artwork into the Kindle than some others have been able to do. And, when I emailed Dan to suggest making a laminated copy of his codex available on his website, I got no reply. So, with the caveat about the illustrations, thumbs up.

Undertow, by Elizabeth Bear: The rare sci-fi/fantasy entry, and I kind of liked it. Thumbs up.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath. Great all the way through. Thumbs up.

The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan: I learned so much from this book about the Great American Dustbowl that I was able to look past some of the oddities in the narrative (like simultaneously asserting that there was no food to be had and that there was a huge surplus of crops). Fascinating stuff about a huge, man-made disaster right in our own backyards. Thumbs up.

Duma Key: A Novel, by Stephen King: Well, you can tell it's a Stephen King novel, because it was a page-turner (told you about those horror novels); I remember staying up awfully late one night to finish this one. Beware of the usual Stephen King swerve-into-goofiness. Thumbs up.

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote: So? I never read it before! Liked it. Thumbs up.

Pontoon, by Garrison Keilor: The guy is just a genius. Thumbs up.

Got Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens: Excellent work by a very bright author. I would think this book would be more approachable than Sam Harris's phenomenal End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason for most people, so if you're ready to be a little less dogmatic this is a great place to start. Two thumbs way up.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls. Very enjoyable. Thumbs up.

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero. And it tells you why we don't, which is interesting all by itself. I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it; eye-opening, really. Dr. Prothero answers his email very politely and thoughtfully, too. Two thumbs up.

Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Fun! Thumbs up.

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Didn't turn out at all like I thought it would (which is good!), but extremely well written and engrossing. Thumbs up.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer. It's telling that I bet you can't tell from the title alone which faith this book is about. A head-shaker. I learned a lot from this book. Thumbs up.

I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert: Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end. The illustrations were just about useless on the Kindle, though, which was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, two thumbs way up for this first book I ever read on my Kindle.

Quarantine, by Jim Crace: A Booker prize finalist, and a really great novel. Thumbs up.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds: Spectacular. Don't get the Kindle edition (I don't even think you can), as the book is just too beautifully done. Everybody who does presentations should read this, and we should work out a system of fines for those presenters who don't. Two thumbs way up.

Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL, by Dean Allemang and Jim Hendler. A much-needed practical book by two talented authors which should help us get Semantic Web technologies and techniques put to use a bit faster. (Not a Kindle book just yet). Thumbs up.

OK, that's pretty much it. There will be more.

Ferguson

2008-06-15T09:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, Mason and I took my dad to Ferguson, MO, where he grew up. It's a pleasant place, not too far from where we live now. It was really fun to see where my dad used to live, where my mom used to live, and the trail that he took from his house to my mom's house, and all the other houses and schools from his boyhood. We talked about memory, and how it's not always the most accurate picture of what happened. I saw my mom's parents' old house, and it looked so much smaller than I remember it being.

We had lunch at the Whistle Stop, which is a sandwich shop/frozen custard shop/museum in Ferguson's old train depot. While we were deciding what to order, a super nice guy came up to us and asked which one of us was N6QXA. Evidently, he had seen my license plate in the parking lot. I told him that was me, and he introduced himself as being from a local radio club that operates CW (Morse code) out of the museum using the original railroad equipment. I couldn't make heads or tails of what they were sending, because instead of the International Morse Code that I know, they were using the much rarer "railroad Morse" or American Morse Code. They were very excited about it, and so happy to tell people about it, and it was nice to see some people doing that. My dad informed them that when he was a kid he used to go to the depot and watch the telegrapher sending. Evidently, that telegrapher died only recently at the age of 106.

We ended the tour at the Fee Fee Cemetery near Creve Coeur. If you follow the link and zoom in as far as you can, you might see a big sugar maple just northeast of the sourthernmost loop of the cemetery road. That maple tree is just about right in the middle of the perpetual Slater plot, where my dad's parents are buried, and their parents, and some other Slaters as well as some members of the Long family who are also our relatives. A couple of these Longs were Confederate soldiers, as indicated by the prominent "CSA" on their grave markers. One of the Slaters interred there, Herbert T. Slater (1895-1918), died in an interesting way. He and his girlfriend went out on a last boat ride on the river before he shipped out to fight in World War I, and they never saw either of them alive again.

As always, a really great time with my dad. He is so fun to have around. Photo credit goes to Mason Slater, who is also fun to have around.

Teddy Slater's Best Friend

2008-06-13T20:49:00.002-05:00

Today, my dad and Mason and I drove about an hour and a half to Clarksville, MO, to see my dad's father's best friend Kurt Owen. My name is Ted (not Theodore) because my grandfather's name was Harry; his friends all called him Ted. Or Teddy, evidently, as I heard Mr. Owen call him. Mr. Owen is "92 years young." We asked him to what he owed his longevity, and he said same as Mark Twain: he stayed away from hard tobaccy, hard drink, and fast girls... until he was 13 years old. Mr. Owen has let his driver's license expire. He says they don't renew it after you're 91-and-a-half years old, and anyway he has two girlfriends to drive him around when he needs it. He is sharp as a tack, and he has such a great, powerful baritone voice; he must've been able to sing just about anybody under the table back in the day.

Mr. Owen lives on a bluff with an unbeatable view of the Missouri River. The river is actually flooding now, and is going to flood some more in the coming days; people were filling sandbags down by the river, and there was a steady stream of dump trucks carrying sand to them the whole time we were there. When we left, Mr. Owen gave my dad (who promptly gave to me) a metate and mano that has been in the family for a long, long time, since 1900 or so, my dad thought. He remembers grinding some corn with it when he was a kid. Tasty. Remind me to tell you about the time my dad dyed all my underwear with walnuts.

Good Stories

2008-06-12T18:29:00.007-05:00

Did you ever meet one of those people who just know a million stories? You feel lucky when you meet them and talk to them, because you know there's just no way you're going to get those stories from anybody else. I'm pretty lucky, because my dad is one of those people. He rode his Harley from Socorro, NM, to see us here in Wildwood, MO, and we had a nice dinner with him this evening.

I told him that I was reading a great book called about the Battle of the Little Big Horn called A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan, which I thought he would find interesting. My dad's an anesthesiologist, and we lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota when he was in the Public Health Service. The Pine Ridge Reservation is an Ogalala Sioux reservation, and it was against the Lakota Sioux and some of the Northern Cheyenne that Custer fought in that Battle. This got my dad telling a couple of stories from the time we lived on the Rez.

The first story he told was about Ben Black Elk, who was Black Elk's son, and who translated Black Elk Speaks to John Neihardt (who was an interesting guy in his own right; my dad used to see him walking around campus at Mizzou in Columbia). Ben Black Elk came in to see my dad as a patient a few times. He told my dad that Black Elk was 13 at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and that he and a friend of his were walking through the dead and wounded soldiers after a fight, scalping them with their dull kid knives. It was standard procedure for dead and wounded enemies to be mutilated by the women and children; one's enemies are not to go comfortably into the afterlife. Ben Black Elk said that his father scalped one soldier who was still alive, the soldier started grinding his teeth. How's that for stoicism?

Another story was about a Sioux named Ben Irving. Ben showed up at my dad's office with all the classic symptoms of diabetes. My dad prescribed some medication for him, and Ben came back after a while feeling a lot better (which, according to my dad, is what they always do). Ben was effusive in his thanks, telling my dad how much better he felt and everything, and he reached out his hand to give something to my dad. Dad was thinking that Ben had some interesting Native American craft or something, and that he was going to have to say something about not being able to accept a gift like that. What Ben put in my dad's hand was all of his urine test strips showing his good blood sugar results. Ben must've been awfully proud of those things.

One thing about Ben Irving was that he was kissed by the Queen of England. How that happened was that it turns out that Ben was the Littlest Indian in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. One performance was attended by Her Majesty, and at one point a couple of her guards went out and lifted the Littlest Indian from his pony and brought him to be kissed by the Queen. That is definitely something to tell the grandkids about.

My dad didn't tell this story this evening, but it's one that I've always liked because I think it changed my history. One time my dad was helping some Indians on the reservation break a horse. He said that at one point when the horse was really kicking, he saw one of the horse's back hooves come right up toward his forehead. Luckily, it didn't hit him (I can tell you from experience that those animals can really kick hard). But later that evening when he was home, he happened to look in the mirror and he noticed a red horseshoe-shaped mark right in the middle of his forehead.

Mitakuye oyasin.

Field Trip to Tom Bihn

2008-04-12T17:45:00.003-05:00

Tom Bihn makes the coolest bags. I carry the Buzz bag all the time, and when I travel I use my new Aeronaut. I also have the Big Brain Bag backpack which I pull out occasionally, and the Empire Builder briefcase. I have my eye on the Zephyr, though, a smaller version of the Empire Builder; maybe someday.

Anyway, I was in Seattle early this week, and managed to get a field trip in to the Tom Bihn Retail Store / Factory Showroom. That was a real treat for me, as anyone who knows what a bag freak I am will tell you. I got a TerraGrip strap for my Aeronaut, and my friend Giles got a wicked cool Ego bag with a seat belt buckle. Very nice!

Kindling

2008-01-02T20:56:00.000-06:00

I've had my Kindle for about 3 weeks now, and I still think it's one of the coolest things ever. Since my last Kindle post, I've finished Under the Banner of Heaven, No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy), and Wicked (Gregory Maguire). Right now I'm reading Religious Literacy, by Stephen Prothero. I think I'll read The Glass Castle: A Memoir next.

I am King of the Geeks

2007-12-20T14:45:00.000-06:00

A picture is worth 10^3 words.

I Passed!

2007-12-18T21:04:00.000-06:00

Tonight I learned that I passed my nikyu (brown belt) test, which I took on 08 Dec. Next class (Thursday) we'll have a bit of a ceremony where all the other people who passed their grading and I will get to put on our new belts. It will be good to wear my brown belt again. But there is more pressure on the higher belts to be good role models.

Je m'appelle Flocon de Neige!

2007-12-16T11:14:00.000-06:00

We had a quite a snowfall yesterday and last night, accumulating 6 inches or so here in Wildwood. Here's a picture of our house the day after, which Mason took with his cool camera.

Thanks to Sheldon Foisy of GenoLogics for the title of this entry. He doesn't yet know of his contribution, significant though it is. :-)

Kindle is Cool

2007-12-15T20:22:00.000-06:00

I got an Amazon Kindle this week, just in time for my recent trip to Groton, CT. I was a little bit worried about that purchase, because it is a bit pricey and there was a fair amount of controversy in what people were saying about it. But I really love to read, and the Kindle was just too perfect a fusion of cool things for me to pass up. So, I validated my early-adopter status and bought it.

I'm not at all sorry. The only bit of criticism about the device that really stands up is that the Next Page and Previous Page buttons on the side are too easy to hit -- they really are, and it's annoying. Other than that, it has worked flawlessly for me, and reading books with it is a very pleasant experience. And when I got stuck in Hartford because of their big snowstorm on Thursday, and I finished my book (Stephen Colbert's "I Am America, And So Can You!", which was absolutely hilarious), I was able to browse the online Kindle Store, buy another one (Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," which is just as scary as you'd think it would be), and immediately start reading it without even leaving my chair at RDU.

Very cool.

Ice, Ice, Baby

2007-12-09T20:42:00.000-06:00

Ice storm tonight in the St. Louis area. I enjoy snow much better, but I don't think we'll get too much of that down here.

Karate Grading

2007-12-09T19:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday at my dojo (Missouri Karate Association) we had a grading session. Such sessions are sometimes called "belt tests." In very traditional dojos, like this one (which teaches Shotokan), you don't ask to be graded; instead, the instructors invite you to test because they feel like you're ready. More importantly, you don't just automatically get graded because you've been there for 2 months since the last time or something like that. Every belt you get, every level you attain, you have to work hard for. And the higher up you go, the more you realize that you have so much to learn, and the journey never ends. In fact, first dan (shodan, or black belt) really just means that you've finally gotten the basics down sufficiently to really start learning karate.

The instructors at MKA are three brothers: Barry (the chief instructor), Brian, and Darrell Power. All excellent, and champions in their own right. For this grading session, we were very fortunate that their father, Barry F. Power Sensei, flew in from Vancouver. He also ran a couple of seminars prior to the grading, both of which were incredibly instructive. I hope to see him again.

Anyway, I was testing for nikyu. Usually, karateka (students of karate) begin at 10th kyu, almost always a white belt, and go all the way up to 1st kyu (ikkyu), almost always a brown belt. In between can be a whole bunch of different colored belts, but there isn't too much standardization for those. You can really only rely on white, brown, and black. Anyway, nikyu (2nd kyu) is usually a brown belt, as it is at MKA.

Grading in Shotokan has the same kind of form as almost every regular class session: kihon (basics), kata (formal exercises, or forms), and kumite (sparring). Kihon comprises the basics of karate: stances, punching, blocking, kicking. Kata are the things that are almost like dances that you'll see individuals or teams do; sequences of moves that you do in a very particular way, and you can spend your whole karate career perfecting them (same with kihon, for that matter). Kumite is when you and a sparring partner get together and "fight;" in some dojos, you really fight, but not in Shotokan (which works for me; "no pain, no pain!").

As you might imagine, the kihon, kata, and kumite that you have to do to attain each new level get more and more difficult as you move up the ranks. Nikyu is pretty demanding, and ikkyu is harder still, etc. You definitely spend some time during the grading trying to catch your breath, because with every punch, kick, and block, you're really putting everything you have into it. And your brain has to be working all the time, remembering exactly what to do and how to do it.

For nikyu, I had to do a fairly substantial chunk of kihon (you can read about it here). I tested alongside another guy in the dojo, who's been really helpful to me since I started there a few months ago (he accidently kicked another guy's knee during the seminar right before the testing, and his left great toe was pretty screwed up; he doesn't think he broke it, but it sure looked purple and painful!). We had to do the kata called Bassai Dai, which is probably my favorite kata (so far, anyway). Then we were asked to do another kata, whatever was our favorite other kata. I almost chose Heian Godan, but I like Tekki Shodan as well, and it's quite different from Bassai Dai and the Heian kata (the plural of "kata" is "kata," I believe) I know, so I (like my test-mate) chose to do that one. And then we did some ippon kumite, which is a kihon kind of one-step sparring. Then we got some well-deserved critique from Brian F. Power Sensei. And then it was over!

I'm feeling it today. Class on Thursday, seminar Friday, seminar Saturday morning, and then grading, have all left me with some sore muscles. I need to get into better shape! We won't find out how we did for a few class sessions. Of course I hope I passed, but you never know. I really just want to be ranked where I should be ranked (I was a brown belt in Bill Bly Sensei's dojo in North Carolina, but I've been wearing my white belt since I came to MKA), and it is absolutely up to the instructors to say where that is.

If I get some pictures, I'll post them! And I'll let you know how I did when I find out.

Johnny Rose

2007-11-09T20:07:00.000-06:00

An ex-Moonie named John drove me home from the airport tonight. He told me his father was a preacher (Church of Christ, with which I'm not familiar) and a schoolteacher in New Jersey. When he graduated from high school his parents gave him a deal: if he went to the whatever religious college they wanted him to attend for a year, they'd pay for that school or whatever other school he wanted for the rest of the time. His year at the religious college was difficult (this was back in the early 70s, and the school had an issue with hair that was long enough to touch the collar), so after that he went to the University of Texas.

Right after he got there, he met the Moonies on campus. Moonies, of course, are the followers of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. I have to admit that I'm not too familiar with these guys, either. But John got involved with their fundraising arm pretty much right off the bat. And he raised money for the Moonies for the next 11 years. He visited the Rev. Moon about 1 month into it, at his multimillion dollar mansion in Tarrytown, NY; that helped me understand why the fundraising was so important.

One of the things the Moonies did (do?) was sell roses in bars. I suppose guys would buy them for whoever they were with at the bar, but the first thing that I thought of was guys buying them for their wives so they don't get too busted when they stagger home. John laughed at that and said that he always told guys to knock on their door and throw the rose inside; if it didn't come back, the guy was in relatively good shape with domestic governance.

John said his parents really had a good time with him with all this. He mentioned that he had a younger brother, so I asked him about how his brother turned out. He said that one summer when he was staying at the Rev. Moon's mansion, his brother came to visit him and told him that he was gay. John asked whether he had told their parents, and he said that he had. At that time, their grandmother was living with their parents. Evidently, when all that came out, she told the brother, "I don't know why they're making such a big deal about this. When your father was your age, he was queer as a three-dollar bill."

John still sells those roses in bars on Friday and Saturday nights. Everybody calls him "Johnny Rose." He says sometimes he gives away more roses than he sells. Sounds about right.

Leopard is Out

2007-10-26T23:42:00.001-05:00

Tonight Apple Computer released the latest version of Mac OS X, called Leopard. Mason and I went to the St. Louis Galleria to the Apple Store there, and waited in line with a few hundred other people until 18.00, when the nice Apple guys threw open the doors so we could buy the our own copies of the coolest OS on the planet.

Before they opened the place up, the Apple guys were toddling around the line taking pictures with their iPhones. They were pretty excited about the whole thing.

Mason and I got free t-shirts, having been among the first 500 people in the store. The funniest shirt they had showed the Windoze logo in some crosshairs, with the words "Hasta la Vista" above. Nice.

The Leopard installation onto my MacBook Pro actually did not go without a hitch; I had a bit of trouble initially. But I more or less magically got out of it, and all seems to be well.

I saw my friend Errol Sandler just before I got in the store. Errol is a former colleague from Ann Arbor, and it was great to see him.

Stinkhorns Again

2007-10-13T22:12:00.001-05:00

The thing about mushrooms is that they can be pretty hard to identify. I posted recently about some stinkhorns I found in my backyard, and I identified them as Phallus impudicus, the common stinkhorn. Well, I looked them up in another really great mushroom book I have, "Mushrooms of Northeast North America" by George Barron, and I also checked out a voucher specimen at the Missouri Mycological Society's website. That voucher specimen is of Phallus ravenelii, or Ravenel's stinkhorn, and it looks an awful lot like the common stinkhorn. So now I'm wondering whether the ones I saw are P. ravenelii rather than P. impudicus.

The way to distinguish the two, according to Barron, is to look for the chambered ("morel-like") head after the spore-mass is removed from P. impudicus. Oops, too late for that! The picture of the voucher specimen (collected by Brad Bomanz) appears to show some of the spore-mass removed, but I have to say that the head of that specimen doesn't look particularly morel-like to me. For an example of a morel, check out the same collector's picture of Morchella deliciosa.

See? Told you mushrooms are fun!

Radiohead's Latest

2007-10-13T21:31:00.001-05:00

Radiohead have shaken things up a little bit by making their latest album, "In Rainbows," available only from their website, and for exactly as much as you feel like paying for it. Yep, that's right, pay what you want for it and download away, DRM-free. As I write this, the last song of the album is playing on my iPod. The whole album, start to finish, is brilliant, well worth what I paid for it.

And just how much did I pay for it, seeing as I could pay whatever I wanted? Well, I sort of took what I thought was the average cost of a 10-song album on iTunes, converted that amount to pounds, and paid that much. The only disappointment I had was that there was no album art associated with the mp3 files; no worries, there are plenty of candidates out there for you to download. Anyway, I hope you buy the album, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Kata

2007-10-07T22:05:00.000-05:00

This evening I've been practicing my Shotokan kata. Since I started training again after a long absence, I've mostly been doing Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan when we're asked to practice "our kata" in the dojo. I'd pretty much forgotten all the ones I'd learned in North Carolina, and I really need to get them back and train them hard. It finally dawned on me (duh) that I'm probably not going to be able to do that by just going to class; I'm going to have to work on them outside of class as well.

So, tonight I worked on Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, and Heian Godan. I'm still a bit rusty, but I think I can at least make it all the way through each of them now. There's still some muscle memory left for a lot of parts, which helps. I'll work on these until I get them down again, then I'll work on Tekki Shodan and Bassai Dai (my favorite of all the kata I've learned). Once I get those, that will pretty much get me back to where I was before I moved to Massachusetts and stopped training in Shotokan.

By the way, I've been training at the Missouri Karate Association for about 2 months now (minus a couple of weeks for business travel), and I think the instruction there is great.

Stinkhorns

2007-10-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

When I was just a little kid (I think we were living in Columbia, MO, at this time), my dad took my brother and me out into the woods to look for mushrooms. It must've been autumn, because there were lots of dead brown leaves on the ground. In some of those leaves, I found a single morel mushroom, which we picked and brought home and sauteed in butter. This outing left a pretty big impression on me, because I remember it to this day, and I still very much enjoy mushroom hunting and mycology in general.

Today while I was mowing the lawn (in Wildwood, MO) I found a few very interesting mushrooms in the backyard. These mushrooms are called stinkhorns. They're members of the Phallaceae, for reasons which should be obvious from this photo. In particular, these are Phallus impudicus, the common stinkhorn.

David Arora, in his excellent book "Mushrooms Demystified," says that the stinkhorns' most outlandish feature is the unpleasant odor of the mature spore slime, aptly described as "indiscreet." As proof of this I need offer no further evidence than to point out the green bottle fly perched atop the center specimen, apparently enjoying himself. Stinkhorns are malodorous (and, frankly, kind of funny) but not overtly poisonous, and can be hunted by their scent alone.

I'm not going to eat these, despite the fact that they aren't poisonous. The fruiting bodies evidently grow from "eggs" which one Cpt. Charles McIlvaine said "demand to be eaten." I'm kind of thinking, um, not so much. But aren't mushrooms fun?

Prius

2007-09-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

I ordered a Prius Friday night. I'm kind of exited about it. I very much like the fact that they're better for the environment than most vehicles -- I want to do my part. I also like the fact that it's such a techy car. The number of bells & whistles on this thing for geeks is just amazing.

Not that I'm a geek or anything. I hasten to add.

I know this will get me in trouble with my brother's wife, who does marketing for Hummer. I think I'll just get 48 mpg driving over that bridge when I come to it. ;-)

Kayak Rolling

2007-09-23T14:06:00.000-05:00

On my most recent visit to Groton, CT, my good friend Stephen Dobson and his long-suffering fiance Angela took me kayak rolling. This was a pretty humbling experience, I have to admit.

I've rented kayaks many times before, usually on various rivers in Michigan, and I've really enjoyed my time in them. Stephen and Angela refer to these kayaks (with no small amount of disdain) as "rec boats." It turns out that these kayaks are much more stable than the ocean kayak that Stephen put me in. Which might explain why, after some valuable dry-land training in the kayak, I was able to get maybe 3 meters after Stephen pushed me out to sea before I promptly flipped upside down. That was the first of many experiences that evening of hanging upside down in the water, strapped into the kayak and kind of wondering how I was going to get upright again.

It's pretty hard, I have to say. I'm pretty sure that in slightly more than an hour, I was able to roll myself back up twice (which I'm told is pretty good, but Stephen and Angela make it look so easy that I couldn't help being a bit disappointed in myself). Two things helped me, I think. First, I'm a PADI Assistant Instructor, so when I do find myself underwater like that, I really don't feel uncomfortable. Second, it turns out that a bit of hip action is beneficial when you're trying to get the boat back over, and karate is great for that hip action. You never know what experience is going to help you in any given situation.

Anyway, Stephen told me to bring my "kit" for Wednesday evening when I'm back in Groton -- evidently a 2-week absorption phase is a good thing. I'll let you know how I do!

Haiku Hijinx

2007-09-21T15:17:00.000-05:00

Enough people have been amused by this story that I think I should tell it out loud once and for all. Besides, I think the statute of limitations has run out on my crimes, so I think I'm safe.

When I got out of graduate school (for the second time -- story for another day), I did a brief stint at a little start-up company that had spun out of General Atomics in La Jolla. One day when I was at work, inspiration struck me and in that instant I was obliged to write on the bathroom wall the only thing I've ever saw fit to write in such an inauspicious place.

What I wrote was a haiku. Which was inevitable, if you know me. I reproduce it for you here, word for word, so that you might be amused by it as some few others have before you.

a bowel movement

is a very private thing

one person per stall

Despite its somewhat pedestrian nature (see my early meta-post on Haiku 1), I hope you find it and its circumstances enjoyable. :-)

MO Speed!

2007-09-19T21:03:00.001-05:00

I got my Missouri license plates for my car today. I don't want to put them on, though. According to my careful field observations, Missouri license plates cause cars to go about 10 mph slower than they otherwise woud go.

So much has changed

2007-08-19T08:54:00.000-05:00

To quote the literary genius Jim Anchower, "I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but things got crazy, if you know what I mean." The last time I wrote it was from Bend, OR, where I was interviewing because my company announced the closure of my site in Ann Arbor, MI. We just finished moving away from there, but not to Bend (which was nice, but probably not the right place for us). Nor did we move to Seattle, or Cambridge, or Groton, or Indianapolis, or La Jolla, or Thousand Oaks, or someplace in New Jersey of which I'd never heard.

Where we did move is Wildwood, MO. Turns out to be a pretty nice place actually, despite the punishing heat in the summertime. My new job is very cool, the people here are fantastic. The move went pretty smoothly, actually, although we did have couple of issues that were kind of a drag to deal with. But, that part is pretty much over now. The truth is, relocation is incredibly disruptive and time-consuming, but moving to a new place can be pretty interesting.

The proverbial fly in all of this relocation ointment is leaving our friends from Ann Arbor behind. We all had great friends there, and it was very hard to leave them behind. Lots of my friends moved to Groton, CT, one of whom I miss terribly (you know who you are). That's the real cost of moving.

One good thing about moving here is that I've taken up Shotokan karate again. I used to train at Sensei Bill Bly's excellent dojo in Cary, NC. I was pretty pleased to find a Shotokan dojo very near where I work in Chesterfield, the Missouri Karate Association. I really like doing Shotokan, and I think the people at MKA are great.

More later. Peace out.

New Hams

2007-04-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I played the role of an ARRL Volunteer Examiner (VE) at a ham radio testing session for the first time. I had a lot of fun, for two reasons. First, it's great to see people taking an interest in amateur radio and passing their licensing exams to become new hams. And second, the other VE's were very knowledgeable and more than happy to share their knowledge with the new guy -- very typical ham behavior, I hasten to add.

One interesting aspect of the whole thing is that we have to be very, very careful about everything we do as a VE team in a testing session. We want everything to be exactly right, so we triple-check everything. Which is good, because what I and the other VEs have at stake in the matter is our own amateur radio licenses.

Such a cool hobby, ham radio.

This Just In: Egg Rolls Edition

2007-03-07T20:51:00.000-06:00

I just learned that the best egg rolls to be had at any price in all the land are the Shrimp Egg Rolls served by Mr. Chan at Chan's Chinese in Bend, Oregon. Not only are they incredibly delicious, but they are presented to the delighted diner at a temperature perfectly compatible with immediate consumption.

Thank you, Mr. Chan!

Bend

2007-03-06T23:02:00.000-06:00

I'm in Bend tonight, a town of about 75,000 in the high desert of Central Oregon. When I left Detroit this morning it was about 7 degrees F outside, and when I arrived here it was about 70. Pretty nice! This is a pretty cool little town, with lots of funky restaurants and lots of people out walking around the downtown area.

One thing I couldn't figure out was that some of the cars driving by had tires that were making all kinds of noise as they rolled down the street. At first I thought there must be a bunch of gravel in the treads, but I finally figured out that these were snow tires with studs on them. I have to say that I grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, and we got a lot of lake-effect snow there; we never had tires with studs on them. Sometimes we put snow tires on the car, sometimes we didn't. It reminded me of when I went to California for the first time one Chistmastime, and during a drive into the mountains we saw signs talking about the requirement for chains. Chains! Crazy.

The Popularity of Anti-intellectualism

2007-03-03T12:02:00.000-06:00

I just read in my local paper that Fox just debuted a new TV game show to record numbers, 26.5 million, on Tuesday. This not only makes it the most-watched series debut in Fox history, but the most popular debut of any series since 1998 (according to Nielsen). The show is called, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" The rapt viewer of this show is evidently treated to the hijinks which ensue when adults are quizzed on the knowledge to be found in elementary school textbooks.

I hope that all of those viewers (a set of which I am not a member) were merely exhibiting a kind of morbid curiosity, wondering (as I do) whether the show's contestants were really up to that kind of challenge.

But I worry that most of those viewers were really wondering whether they themselves were smarter than a fifth grader. And when I think about how maybe some non-trivial fraction of them found themselves deficient, I just imagine them laughing as they tell their sympathetic friends, "I didn't hardly know none of them questions!"

Is this really be the standard to which Americans want to compare themselves?

This is all good, harmless fun, I suppose. Until somebody gets up in front of a school board somewhere, let's say, and wants to make an argument one way or another about something that takes maybe a bit more than a fifth-grade education to really understand. Then I think it's not so much funny as it is dangerous.

We don't merely tolerate ignorance, we embrace it, even encourage it. I think we should all stop acting like a bunch of fifth graders. Ignorance is not funny, or cool; it's just ignorance.

Interviewing

2007-02-28T20:01:00.000-06:00

A bit over a month ago, my company announced the closure of my entire site (dig what Josh blogged about it here). This is a drag in a lot of ways, not only for those of us at the site but for a lot of people in the community and for the great state of Michigan as well. One of the unpleasant upshots of this closure is that I'm back in the job market, which means that I have to interview.

It's like being in a beauty contest every day. And it kind of wears on you. The uncertainty is the worst. But I was thinking about a book I read recently, "The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America," by T. H. Watkins. Maybe I don't have it so bad. I have the luxury of viewing this whole experience as an opportunity, as opposed to a disaster.

Carbon Leaf in Ann Arbor

2007-02-21T09:32:00.000-06:00

My favorite band, Carbon Leaf, played the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last night (20 Feb 2007). I knew from their recordings that they are phenomenal musicians, but you should see them live. It's just so great to see people doing what they're really good at and really enjoying it.

Carter Gravatt, the lead guitarist, really impressed me. I'm hoping for another "Carter Administration" soon. ;-)

Carbon Leaf started the show by beginning to play along with a recording of The Crane Wife 3, a very cool song by The Decemberists. A nice touch.

Kelly, thanks for getting us tickets and giving up your soccer game to go see Carbon Leaf with me!

A Word About Haiku 1

2007-02-19T21:30:00.000-06:00

Haiku 1 has its merits, but it's really not a haiku. Sure, it has three lines, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7, and the last with 5 again, for a total of 17 syllables. The 5-7-5 syllable (onji) form happens to occur naturally in the Japanese language; a haiku in English can be anywhere from just a few syllables up to 17 syllables (rarely more than that).

What makes a haiku a haiku is that it captures the essence of a relationship between Nature and human nature. Alan Watts characterized haiku as "wordless poems," the idea being that a good haiku is so concise that the reader doesn't even really have to read the words to experience the moment of the poem.

Haiku 1 is more of a senryu maybe, which genre is more about human nature and human relationships and is often humorous. Whatever it is, it's pretty pedestrian, I'd say.

And there's more where that came from!

Matteo, thank you so much for the haiku book, from which I learned a lot of this information. If you'd like a copy for yourself, you might want to look it up: The Haiku Anthology, Expanded Edition. Cor van den Heuvel, editor.

Haiku 1

2007-02-19T15:46:00.000-06:00

Japanese Gothic:
MacDonald-san had a farm,
E-I-E-I-O.

Amateur Extra

2007-02-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning I passed my Amateur Extra Class exam. I've been in ham radio for a long time, and have held an Advanced Class license for most of that time. I was really happy to finally be an Extra, though. It's good to set a goal for yourself and hit it.

I'm keeping my Advanced-format call, though. It's the only format left that proves you knew Morse code at one time (something I want to pick up again).

Maybe I'll hear you on the air.

73,
N6QXA/AE

P.S. Thank you to the ARROW VEs for giving up their time!

Hello, world!

2007-02-11T11:58:00.000-06:00

(print (list 'hello 'world))

Gotta start somewhere!

ted sez

El Pollo-style Chicken Marinade

The Whiskey Rebels

Do I want a Kindle DX?

Afraid

The Book Thief

ted's Black Beans & Rice

Happens Every Day

Irish Beef Hand Pies

Cincinnati Chili

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Contagious

The Slave Ship

New Hotness

Free-Range Chickens

Lauriel's Peanut Butter Cookies

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Kindle 2!

Web Coolness

Oooh, That's Sharp!

The Good Thief

Letters of Mozart

Flood

The Manhattan Transfer

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Samurai

Delicious Seafood Pasta Fra Diavolo

Churrascaria!

Best Christmas Album of All Time

Brain Rules...Rules!

Neptune Made Me Cross

My Favorite Turkey Sandwich

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Absolutely Scary

Execution

Ike Is Here

Excellent Dream

Wild Swans

Oops, One More Uber-Tune

Uber-Tunes

Thanks, Mr. Roam

The Funniest Blog in the Whole Wide World

Down River

There Are Some Very Confused People Out There

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

A Great Movie

Suite Française

A Terrible Glory (and some others)

Ferguson

Teddy Slater's Best Friend

Good Stories

Field Trip to Tom Bihn

Kindling

I am King of the Geeks

I Passed!

Je m'appelle Flocon de Neige!

Kindle is Cool

Ice, Ice, Baby

Karate Grading

Johnny Rose

Leopard is Out

Stinkhorns Again

Radiohead's Latest

Kata

Stinkhorns

Prius

Top 10 Ideas presentations

Kayak Rolling

Haiku Hijinx

MO Speed!

So much has changed

New Hams

This Just In: Egg Rolls Edition

Bend

The Popularity of Anti-intellectualism

Interviewing

Carbon Leaf in Ann Arbor

A Word About Haiku 1

Haiku 1

Amateur Extra

Hello, world!