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Sunday, July 06, 2008
New Photos Went to Buena Vista last weekend. Here are a few of the shots.  Agnes Vaille Falls  With Amy  Snake!  Hail on the Deck  Hummingbird Strikes a Pose  Stoves  Outhouses  Something Happened Up There, In That Room  Entryway  Abandoned  Hancock Vista  Fallen Doorway  Across the Bridge  Me More on my Flickr page. Friday, June 27, 2008
Ex Ex I just found out that an ex-girlfriend of mine died on Wednesday. She was a blind date setup for me by a co-worker. We dated for less than a year, and I did not keep in touch with her after we broke up. Angie was a nice girl who enjoyed partying. We never quite connected on an intellectual level, but we shared some good times. She was a big fan of horror movies. I owe her a great debt in that she helped me realize that I was interested in dating girls and that the troubles and inconveniences of dating could be worth it. Before Angie, I hadn't dated anyone for several years. Since her, I've dated one girl from MySpace and another from Match and have had/am having great relationships with both. I'm not sure how much longer I would have drawn out my isolationism without her, but it might have been a long time. I'll miss her funeral due to other plans this weekend, so this is my goodbye. Cheers, Angie. You were a sweetie. Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Snow It snowed in Denver both yesterday and on Saturday. There's more coming tonight - if the weatherman is to be trusted - and you know he is not. A-Basin is still going strong with 60% of black terrain still open and 100% of blue and green. It's predicted to be 70 by Friday and 80 by Sunday in Denver. Sounds like great weather for skiing! I'd like to get a day in in May and another in June if things hold up. Comparisons I just love this theme: Young Me, Now Me. Find a picture from your youth, take another of yourself now in as near an identical pose as you can muster, and post the photos side by side. Very fun. I plan to dig through some old photo albums when I'm at my parents' place in a couple weeks and then see if I can pull off something similar. With all the siblings gathered for the youngest's wedding, I may be able to get a few fun ones. The site also reminds me what a contrast I see on web pages at work where I'm stuck using IE6 compared to home where I surf with Firefox; Firefox is far superior. Narrow Stairs I've been trying to listen to the new Death Cab for Cutie album a bunch lately. I've probably been through it three or four times, but none of it has exactly been focused listening. It's good. If you like the band, I suspect you'll like the album. There's nothing not to like. Nothing really hits me as poppy tune or grabs me with a great hook. Still, it's all solid DC4C. As the Westword reminded us in February, DC4C songs really have no place on any romanitc mix tape (they were talking about Valentine's Day, but they probably intended it to apply to wedding playlists as well). You're not going to get rainbows and butterflies from Mr. Gibbard, but you aren't really looking for that anyway. Here's the sixth track, You Can Do Better than Me. You can download the entire album from your peer-to-peer peer of choice. Though it went on sale only yesterday, it's been in the internet tubes for at least a week or two now. I'll be checking them out at Red Rocks two weeks from tonight. I'm sure it will be a fine time. Last time that I saw them was in 2006 two days before I shattered my leg, which also occurred at Red Rocks - the leg thing, not the '06 tour; it was at the Filmore. Waning Obamania Two stories in the news today have me regretting all of the positive things I've been saying about Obama and doubting the likelihood that I'll actually end up voting for the guy. First, he's out pimping his Christian bona fides. Eight years of religious fervor in the White House has been enough. We don't need another believer trying to guide the world toward the end days as described by their favorite prophecy. "But let’s remember one thing: Obama has a story to tell about how Jesus came into his life. You can bet we will be hearing more details about it on the stump in the fall." Great. If he wants to continue to dissuade white voters, he'll make great strides by going all black preacher on the trail. At least so far he's sticking with the title Senator over Reverend. Next comes the speculation that John Edwards could be his VP running mate. I think it's unlikely that he'd actually choose that douche bag as I conspiratorially suspect that there's more dirt out there regarding his alleged affair. But it's impossible for me to not think of the guy as a douche bag, and despite the soaring qualifications that gives him as a national politician, I'd rather not see him representing the country doing anything. What I would really, really like to see Obama do is to pick Al Gore as his VP. It's not without precedent for a VP to serve under multiple presidents. George Clinton served under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and John C. Calhoun served under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. You may recall that one of Mr. Gore's great successes during the Clinton years was reinventing government - a broad (and highly successful) effort to streamline and reduce the size of the federal government. By 1999: "the Reinventing Government initiative headed by Al Gore has saved $137 billion, eliminated 16,000 pages of regulations, eliminated 640,000 pages of needless internal rules, and reduced the federal workforce by more than 350,000, to its smallest size since John Kennedy was President." The past 8 years have decimated Mr. Gore's previous work. He was good at it once, and he'd be good at it again. Thursday, May 08, 2008
Mischief This just cracks me up: flashing gifs on epilepsy forums. If I were 733t haX0r, this sort of thing would be right up my alley. I'm very much enjoying reading the biography of Miki Dora who was quite the mischief maker himself. It's a fine tale about the rise of surfing. I've got Gidget in my mailbox and am looking forward to watching it this weekend. Miki was in the movie as an extra, and the real Gidget, Kathy Kohner, is prominent in the early going in the book. Judging from pictures in the book and the pictures on the movie promo, the real Gidget was even cuter than the movie version. It's nearly enough to tease the Beach Boys California Girls song into my head, but I reckon that song will never again invade my head for long as it will instantly be pushed aside by the Magnetic Fields I Hate California Girls. Man, I find that song infectious. The whole Distortion album is really quite good. Look in the right places, and it's available for free on the etherwebs. Sub Prime Here's a great 45 slide cartoon that explains the mortgage crisis accurately and succinctly. It only takes about three minutes to click all the way through. Some of the language is a bit coarse. Any talk of bailouts for homeowners that are in danger of losing their homes just frickin' pisses me off. I was far from sophisticated or educated when I bought my house, but I didn't get a stupid mortgage or buy what I couldn't afford. I have no sympathy for those going through foreclosure. Well, except for the folks that it's happening to because they had a health crisis that turned out to be expensive beyond comprehension and who now can't pay for both their housing and their medical bills. That kind of thing happens all the time, and it is surprising at how far insurance companies will go to screw their insureds by refusing to pay for medical treatments. I've gone off on a raging tangent and need to stop now. Psycho Ex-girlfriend This is great. I've stolen the whole thing from MadAtoms here (via Wil via Fark). Despite all the math counting her out, Hillary Clinton fervently remains in the race to become the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. She has become the Democratic Party's psycho ex-girlfriend, and she's not going away without a restraining order. Sunday, May 04, 2008
Recovering My brother's dog had two heart surgeries last week. On Tuesday, they endoscopically entered her leg in an attempt to repair a tear in her heart. Three times the patch was put into place, and three times the patch slipped off. The surgery was a failure. On Wednesday, they took it to the next level and cracked her ribs for open heart surgery. Initial indications are that it seems to have gone well. She's exhausted and sore still. I don't think she knows what hit her. Hopefully this will ultimately add years to her life.  Thursday, May 01, 2008
Enough Already Ok, all you journos, you can stop defining superdelegates in every single article that employs the term. We all know. There are no new readers coming to this topic. Quit filling space by explaining the concept every time. We get it. Thanks. Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Photo Fixes I'll need to update my disclaimer on the right, as I am no longer modding all of the pictures that I post. The ones right below are all just as taken, for example. I'll likely start tagging or describing them in Flickr to note which are as-taken and which are enhanced -- eventually. I've been playing with Photoshop a good deal. I actually downloaded Illustrator CS3 this weekend too, but I don't know how to use it, and expect that I'll prefer to get better at Photoshop before I move on to the next Adobe product. Every time I devote some time to fixing up photos, I feel like I learn a little more about working in Photoshop. I found a good way to whiten teeth this weekend. I have all of these empty frames lying around that I've acquired over the years that are of varying sizes, and I have thousands upon thousand of digital images just sitting on my harddrive. I'm working to get some things printed and displayed. I really get overly obsessive about themes and perfect prints and cropping and fitting the print size to the visible part of the frame and all of those little things. It may have been easy to physically cut and paste scrapbooks in the olden days, but I do like all that can be done digitally. I have found that I really need to have the photos printed to really appreciate the work and to feel like I've actually created or accomplished anything. Kodak Gallery lets me have 8x10's printed for under $3 at Target, and the 4x6's and 5x7's are far cheaper still. It seems like a fair deal, and I have a goal to fill up the common areas of my house with photos I've taken or made or that are of me. My acquaintances, Mike and Nicole, have always had photos of themselves, their families, and their friends in nearly every nook and cranny of the places they've lived; I really like the feeling it gives a place. Spring Sprung When I left for work this morning, the tree outside my door was covered with little buds.  By the time I got home, things were blooming.  Some little critter lost it's tail. I found this stepping off the bus this afternoon. I've seen a fox in the neighborhood, and I hope a little pup didn't get eaten. But this didn't really look like a squirrel or chipmunk piece, so I fear the worst.  One more picture of the flowers.  Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tahoe I went to Tahoe with Amy in mid-March for Graeme and Megan's wedding. It was a delightful trip. These pictures were taken then.        Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Considering Playing around here again. Maybe I'll try to post some photos with some comments or some stories for a run. Some old, some new (when available). There are some -new- below. Sunday was sunny and bright; the colors seemed to snap; 'twas a beautiful day in the city. I bought a book at REI about, and titled, Backcountry Cooking. Saturday was the penultimate day of the season at Breckenridge. It was still cold - at least at the top. It was pushing 50 at the base: a fine last day of skiing with a brief stop to listen to the band at the end of the day. Thursday, October 11, 2007
What's Cooking I made a new dish for dinner on Tuesday night. I feel like it wouldn't be quite fair to say it was something I created because I have a vague notion that I've seen something similar on a cooking show or in a magazine or somewhere. Still, the idea just kind of evolved for me once I got to the grocery store. I had told Amy I would cook us dinner without having planned it out at all. I went to the store with a vague notion that I might make a quiche. That sounded too breakfast-y so I started doing a little free association in my head. The broccoli for the quiche became asparagus, and from there it morphed to the final recipe. I bought asparagus, shaved, brown sugar ham, gruyere, sharp cheddar, scallions, and crescent rolls. The asparagus were steamed. I fried up the thin ham just enough to add a bit of char to each side. I wrapped the ham around the asparagus and threw in a few finely sliced scallions, some thinly sliced gruyere, and a little bit of shredded sharp cheddar. Then I wrapped all of that in two crescent rolls. The rolls come in triangles, and I kept pairs together so that I could wrap in rectangles. I threw just a touch more cheese in between the ham and the dough. Then I baked the whole bit until the roll portion was golden brown. I topped the wraps with hollandaise sauce (not from scratch, just a packet that needed butter and milk) and served it along side a salad with a simple Beaujolais. It turned out fabulously. When I make it again, I will make a few minor modifications. I will steam the asparagus more briefly. It's always a challenge to get asparagus just right. It varies so greatly in thickness, and the timing changes based on boiling, steaming, or broiling. When you steam and then bake, it only complicates matters. I'll also use a few more scallions next time. I was a bit too conservative (as is wise with any onion) and the flavor didn't come all the way through. I will also use a rolling pin on the crescent dough. Using the preformed triangles was fine, but with a touch more effort, the plated food would have had a slightly nicer look. I almost went with cream of mushroom soup as a topping instead of the hollandaise, but I wouldn't change that part. I might add a side of couscous if I were cooking for a larger audience as well. Everything else about it was really spot on. I'm not exactly an emotional fellow, but when I cook it's not difficult to discern whether or not I am happy about my food. We are always our own most stringent critics. I was quite proud of this effort, however. As I recently commented elsewhere, I think some of the most basic keys to good cooking are good ingredients (like tasty, perfectly sliced brown sugar ham), classic combinations (ham+cheese, asparagus+hollandaise), and simple combinations (asparagus, ham, cheese, onion, bread, sauce = only 6 simple parts) Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Welcome to ski season 07-08. The lifts are open; I've got my pass; I've got new boots; I've got a titanium reinforced lower leg; I'll be skiing before Halloween. Monday, October 08, 2007
Weekend Went to an art display by a friend, a potter. Drank some bad wine (spoiled, in no way a reflection on the host) there and some great beer after. Slept late, read from the desert anarchist's book, surfed the net, watched the doggies, cheered on the Buckeyes. Coffee, eggs, and toast in front of the computer. More book and internet than NFL. Baked some chocolate chip cookies. Yes, from scratch. Watch the Broncos humiliate themselves, their host city, and their fans. Dinner and cribbage with my brother. Too much inside, not enought outside, but it's my own damned fault. Too much leisure, not enough productivity, again, no one else's fault. I'm not much more happy about my weekends than my weekdays as of late. Sometimes I feel like I need a change. Sometimes I feel I'm on the verge of a massive change. Mostly I just feel bogged down. Saturday, October 06, 2007
Lolcatz Caturday thread at Fark has me L'in out loud.  Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't. Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke), Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.  Stupid cat, there's no such thing as miracles. Prediction: Rockies 8 Phillies 4 |
Some parts true. Many made-up.
Songs don't stay posted long.
All photos are manipulated.
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