My wife is visiting my daughter this week so I get to play chef again. The other day I was going to cook something but a coupon came in the mail from Burger King that offered a buy one, get one free on their new Steakhouse Burger. It sounded good to me so I popped the top on the convertible and headed on over to Burger King to get my two-for-one special. Those babies are big! The meat patty is about twice the size of a Whopper and they throw a bunch of fried onions on top. Of course I had to wash them down with something so I also ordered a large chocolate shake. The old gut was definitely full after that meal. The only problem was that I planned on a little run the next morning. Big mistake! That was the toughest run I ever had. Not that I know what being pregnant feels like, but I swear I was in my third trimester during the entire run. I definitely learned my lesson that day on proper eating habits before a run.
Yesterday was a watershed event in my climb up the culinary mountain. I actually used a skillet for the first time. Yep, I cut open a pre-packaged bag of pasta & shrimp and heated it up all by myself. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks! And to think that I didn’t use this feat to impress some girl in my younger days.
Well, until next time folks, keep it tuned here for the next episode of the Kulinary King.
First off, I’m not a big Radiohead fan. Their music is okay, but I wouldn’t want to listen to them all day. That being said, there is one song of theirs that stands out and is worth listening to. The song is Street Spirit (Fade Out) from their 1995 album, The Bends. The song has a haunting and beautiful melody but the lyrics are rather depressing. If you’re in a real happy frame-of-mind, this song won’t help your situation any. The emotional impact of the song is about tenfold stronger if you watch the video. It really makes the song that much more powerful. It’s shot in black and white and uses multiple frame rates and slow motion photography to achieve the outstanding visual effects. I’ve also presented the lyrics below, if you’re interested. It’s most definitely worth a watch.
Click here for the video.
For more information on Radiohead, click here.
Street Spirit Lyrics
Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out
This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again
Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again
Immerse your soul in love
IMMERSE YOUR SOUL IN LOVE
As you get older, you start reflecting more on life. You’ve collected a wide range of experiences and memories over the years to draw from. I don’t think a day goes by without coming across something that triggers one of those experiences or memories. Today, I happened to be out on a morning run and passed by the new hospital in our neighborhood. As I was running by the Emergency Entrance, I was reminded of the fact that a friend of mine from long ago had passed away last week. Although I had rarely seen him over the past 30+ years, I knew from other family members that he was fighting cancer. While in Florida last December, I had the opportunity to stop by his house and see him. I was only able to spend a few short hours there but I’m glad I had the chance to see him one last time. Considering the struggle he was going through both physically and emotionally, he had the greatest attitude you could imagine. He didn’t wallow in sadness or complain about the situation he had to deal with. He just appreciated the time he still had and enjoyed it with his family and friends. What a blessing he must have been to his family and friends during that time. I don’t know if I would be able to carry myself through a time like that with so much class.
We don’t often appreciate the love and friendship we have in our lives. The struggles of day-to-day living smother our human spirit. We worry so much about making the latest deadline and paying the latest bill that we lose sight of the important stuff – the spouse, child, friend or coworker that is right next to us. If they mean something to you, let them know. In some small way, show them they matter. A thank you, a handshake, a pat on the back, or…
Just give them a hug.
Dear Walter:
I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn’t gone more than a mile down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt.
I walked back home to get my husband’s help. When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was in the bedroom with a neighbor lady making mad passionate love to her.
I am 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he tried to make out that he went into the back yard and heard a lady scream, had come to her rescue but found her unconscious. He’d carried the woman back to our house, laid her in bed, and began CPR. When she awoke she immediately began thanking him and kissing him and he was attempting to break free when I came back. But when I asked him why neither of them had any clothes on, he broke down and admitted that he’d been having an affair for the past six months.
I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don’t feel I can get through to him anymore. Can you please help?
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jane Smith
Dear Jane:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the hose clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber. I hope this helps.
Walter
If you don’t know what OS X is, just skip this post.
I happened upon a ZDNET blog today that was discussing the next version of Windows (click here). In typical fashion, there were the sophomoric flames in the comments section. Instead of using reasoned arguments to make their case, they eventually degrade to my operating system is better than yours and yours just sucks. However, there was one comment, in the form of an analogy, that I thought was hilarious and worth repeating. The commenter’s blog name was “Nonzealot”, and here’s what he/she said:
OS X girl thinks she is hot because she’s just had her metal braces replaced with clear ones. She hangs around all the popular girls all day and wants to be just like them although if you were to ask any of the popular girls what they thought of OS X girl, they wouldn’t know who you were talking about. OS X girl knows this and when she gets home at night, writes Facebook posts about how much she hates all the popular girls and wishes they would die. The next morning, she will go into the principal’s office and make up a story about how one of the popular girls stole her purse. At lunch though, she will be sitting at the table next to the popular girls laughing at all their stupid jokes.
OS X girl gets either really high marks on her assignments if her parents did it for her, or really bad marks if her parents were busy and she had to do it herself.
OS X girl prides herself on never having gotten an STD unlike some of the popular girls although this is mostly because none of the boys want anything to do with her. She did convince one of the chess club members to make out with her after school one day and immediately got mono although she tells herself that mono doesn’t really count as a disease because it doesn’t affect your genitals.
She drives an Acura CSX and sticks her nose up at all those tacky Civic drivers, ignoring the fact that she basically paid Honda $10,000 to put an Acura logo on her Civic.
Windows girl, however, doesn’t exist because they are all so different. There are the promiscuous Windows girls who get the disease of the week from the jock of the week but most Windows girls are either waiting for marriage or practice safe sex and are always perfectly healthy.
Some Windows girls drive muscle cars because they like to go fast, some drive their daddy’s BMW, some drive a used Civic, it really depends on their circumstances although all of them make it to school on time.
When working in groups, they tend to get top marks although they are more than willing to take ideas from the girls in the debate club when it will get them even higher marks. All of this will help them get into the top universities and have really successful careers, if that is what they decide to do. They’ll probably be really polite to OS X girl as she is cleaning their house although they probably still won’t know her name.
BTW, I own and use both Windows and Apple computers. In fact, I’m using an Apple computer to type this, but I still appreciate good humor.
Today I’m going to start a new topic – Movies. I’ve always enjoyed watching a good movie. At home, I have a 400-unit DVD Changer and I filled that puppy up a few years ago. I like most any type of movie genre as long as it has some entertainment value. I have to admit though, if the movie is so complicated or deep that the plot is hard to follow, it doesn’t make it in my book. For the most part, I go to a movie to be entertained. If I have to use too much brainpower to appreciate it, it won’t make it onto my top 100 chart.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but lately it seems that many of the movies that I like, the critics rate pretty low. I’ve almost gotten to the point that if the critics rave about it, I avoid it like the plague. I didn’t spend good money to get a Hollywood producer’s personal view on some perceived social injustice. I can get all the social commentary I want online for free or from TV documentaries and the news. Give me some good old-fashioned comedy, romance and a little action, thank you very much. So, without further ado and in no particular ranking order, my first movie selection is Ghost.
Ghost has several different movie genres rolled into one. There’s drama, romance, comedy and the underlying theme of good versus evil. The romance was nicely done and in good taste. I got a real kick out of the way Whoopi Goldberg played her crazy character, Oda Mae Brown, and the interaction between her and Patrick Swayze’s character, Sam. The visual effects of the shadowy demons were subtle and compelling in portraying the consequences of evil. This movie definitely makes the grade for me.
Main characters: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg
Year released: 1990
For more information on the movie, click here.
In Sunday’s Parade magazine was an article on a Computer Science professor from Carnegie Mellon University who has pancreatic cancer. They say he has only a few months to live. What a shame it has to be cut so short. You get a real sense from the article that Randy Pausch has led a fulfilling and rewarding life. I’m sure he’s had a positive impact on many of his students and made life just a little brighter for many of his colleagues and friends.
Prior to finding out he had cancer, he had agreed to do a “last lecture” for the university. In these lectures, one talks on what matters most to them. Here are some of the ideas he wanted to share:
1. Always Have Fun
2. Dream Big
3. Ask for What You Want
4. Dare To Take a Risk
5. Look for the Best In Everybody
6. Make Time for What Matters
7. Let Kids Be Themselves
The lecture he gave is on YouTube. It’s about 75 minutes long but is well worth your time. If more people had this kind of attitude in life, the world would be a much nicer place to live in. I’ve had the great fortune of knowing someone like this, and I’m very thankful for it.
Click here for the video.
NOTE: This Wednesday, April 9th at 10PM EDT, ABC’s Primetime will feature Professor Pausch and his family.
A man was riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, “Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish. The biker pulled over and said, “Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want.”
The Lord said, “Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.”
The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, “Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy.”
The Lord replied, “You want two lanes or four on that bridge?
Last night I was watching the movie, The Constant Gardener, for the second time. Normally, I just turn a DVD off when the video ends, but this time I let the credits start rolling. When I did, a most amazing song started playing. The song title is Kothbiro by a gentleman named Ayub Ogada.
Ayub Ogada is a Kenyan musician. In addition to his singing, he also plays an African stringed instrument called the nyatiti. Although this song came out on The Constant Gardener soundtrack in 2005, the song was actually recorded on his album, En Mana Kuoyo, which he recorded back in 1993. He’s also collaborated on several other songs with Susheela Raman and the Afro Celt Sound System.
Maybe I’ve been watching too many “Chick” flicks with my wife and daughter lately, but I really like the melody and lyrics of this song. You wouldn’t guess it from the melody, but the song is about cattle herding. The word Kothbiro translates roughly into English as “Rain is Coming”. Although sung in his natural tongue, the English translation is below:
Auma do you hear what I say
The rain is on its way
Return our cattle home
Yaye the children
What is it that you think you do?
The rain is on its way
Return our cattle home.
If you’d like to listen to the song, there’s a video on YouTube made by an individual from Argentina that used this song as the soundtrack. Click here.
If you’d like more information on Ayub Ogada, click here.
Definitely worth a listen.
Tag clouds are a pretty unique and clever presentation medium. In its original form, it’s used in a way to visually present the tags (topics) applied to a site’s content so the user can see the relative frequency of specific tags and use the actual tags presented in the visual as navigation aids around the website. Lately, however, I’m seeing these used in many other Internet venues. I’ve seen them used at websites to depict the occurrence and frequency of search items and also in the frequency of occurrence of words in a text file. In the example I’ve displayed below, I took the text of the Declaration of Independence and presented the occurrence of the 50 most used words. Even without the actual word count in parentheses beside the words, you can quickly visualize their relative frequency based on their size.
I’ve seen these tag cloud displays in other documents I’ve come across on the Internet and elsewhere, but I never really gave them much thought. They’re seen a lot on blogs and other Internet websites to show the usage of tags at that site. It seems like a very intuitive method of displaying your data to the user. Instead of having to graph the data and create a legend to define your graph’s axes, the data is self-describing in displaying it’s relative importance. Where the visualization becomes problematic is when there is a large variance in the set of data being presented. Font sizes needed to display the smallest and largest values may make the smaller values unreadable or the size of the display untenable. Of course, displaying large variances on a graph have the same problems when trying to depict small values.
I think that as people get more used to this presentation medium, it will be used for more and more types of data. There’s certainly no reason why you couldn’t use it to present financial data, sports information, survey results, etc.
What do you think?
