Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween! I've just baked some mini-pumpkin cookies to take to a party this evening. Once they've cooled I'm going to frost them, hopefully with more skill than the last batch of sugar cookies I made (penguins that were tasty but ugly as sin.)
I've been thinking about Halloween costumes today, trying to recall my favorite from childhood, but nothing special comes to mind except the sushi costumes some friends and I wore to a party two years ago. We were supposed to be different types of maki (except our friend Kip who was tamago, he wore a white t-shirt, spray painted a giant piece of foam yellow, placed it on his back and cinched a black trashbag around his waist to imitate the seaweed, it was something!), but it didn't quite work as I'd planned. Still, I think it's my favorite costume, and certainly my favorite costume attempt. Perhaps next year I'll try it again. This year I'm recycling a different old costume: my spider hat that I made in 1997. I'll try to post a picture this afternoon.
Whole-wheat rigatoni with butternut squash and beet greens
Ingredients
1 16 oz. package whole-wheat rigatoni or penne or some pasta
2 T. unsalted butter
1 onion, cut into slivers
1 1 1/2 to 2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
5 or 6 shitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced 1/4-inch thick
handful of white button mushrooms, sliced 1/4-inch thick†
1/4 c. dry sherry
3 c. homemade stock‡
3 oz. beet greens, from one bunch of beets (or Swiss chard), tough stems removed, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 t. coarse salt
1/4 t. freshly ground pepper
2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled#
On peer-to-peer journalism
Oops, not sure how so much time passed between updates, guess I've been busy with other things, like going to Berkeley for my "Journalism's New Life Forms" panel on Saturday. Rusty's got a great write-up over at Kuro5hin which you should check out. The panel was fun and interesting, but too short. Only an hour! Rusty and I could have talked for three hours at least about that stuff, but it was better than nothing.
I've got a lot of thoughts about how panels should work, now that I've participated in quite a few, and I was pleased that this one went off fairly well. I'll try to summarize in the next day or so.
Meanwhile, on the peer-to-peer/amateur journalism vibe: Matt Haughey's observed an increase in traffic accidents at the intersection near his house. This is the start of an interesting, and potentially important, local news story. With a little research, this could turn into a "real" article. Now either Matt could take it to the next level by making some phone calls and digging up some stats about accidents at the Masonic/Fell intersection, or a local reporter (who reads weblogs to keep up on what's happening, to get a sense of what's afoot in his/her community) could pick this up. A phone call to Matt, a few more well-placed calls, and this could (and should) be in the Chronicle. Why has the City apparently abandoned the street light upgrade? Has there really been an increase in accidents? Is the traffic signal less visible than it used to be? Is the City at fault? Are they potentially liable? If you take a look at the pictures Matt posted, you'll see this is a pretty serious issue. One car ended up on its side after the most recent crash.
This is a great example of how peer-to-peer journalism can work. Matt's observed something and he's alerting people to it, and alerting a wider audience than he would if he just made a phone call to City Hall. With more people having knowledge of the issue, the problem is more likely to be addressed. It's a lot harder for someone to sweep this under the rug. (I just love the political implications of P2PJ, don't you?) It's also a great example of how traditional journalists can use weblogs for research and story ideas. I think I'm going to use this as an example during my talk next week in DC (at the O'Reilly conference).
A delicious new recipe
I've added a new recipe to "cooking": Whole-Wheat Rigatoni with Butternut Squash and Beet Greens. Yum yum yum!
The German esszet
So that strange ß is called an "esszet" in German, and apparently there's much more too it than I realized. First of all, you can't just go willy-nilly substituting it for any old "ss" you find. It is only appropriate after a long vowel, after a short vowel you just use "ss". For a more detailed explanation, check out this use of esszet in German page. Apparently there was a spelling reform in Germany that attempted to do away with the esszet in 1998 but it hasn't met with much success. And did you know Swiss Germans don't use the esszet? (Hence the reform, to get everyone spelling the same.) More info here.
Where did these crazy characters come from anyway? Origin of the umlaut and eszett. [Note: everywhere I look, people are spelling esszet differently.] I like all the accents and funny characters, I wish English used them. That was one of my favorite things when I started learning foreign languages back in 5th grade: getting to use accents, and upside-down exclamation points. ¡Olé!
Several people kindly wrote in listing other words which contained "ss". One was even so thoughtful to remind me that "ass" has two. I'm certain it wasn't directed at me personally. Thank you dear readers. Thank you.
Speaking on Saturday at Berkeley
On Saturday I'll be speaking on a panel entitled, "Journalism's new life forms" at the Online News Association's Annual Conference in Berkeley. We've assembled a list of resources and links to share with our audience, if you think there's something missing that should be there, please let me know. Note: this isn't a comprehensive listing, just an overview.
The jack-hammer shake
They are jack-hammering so close to my house right now my desk is shaking! I think I'm going to have to spend most of the day outside, far away from here.
A new pizza experiment
I concocted a new pizza last night but the recipe isn't quite ready for distribution yet. The carmalized onion topping was a little too sweet. I don't think the cooking section is going to see as many updates as I'd anticipated.
Fun with German
One of the funnest things about Berlin was trying to speak German. German is cool, especially because instead of writing two s's they write one ß (what's this thing called?). So you'll see things like straße rather than strasse (which means street). From now on here at megnut, I may employ the "B" s. Except that there's not as much opportunity to use it in English, since we don't have as many back-to-back s's. Heck. I can't even think of one right now that doesn't include an apostrophe. Oh! Accessible. From now on, I shall write it acceßible. Ja. Gut.
I need to get a wireless PC card for my laptop. Any recommendations? Horror stories and must-avoids out there? I'm looking for something under $100. As far under as possible. Thanks in advance.
Oh! Embarraßing is another.
Megnut for hire
I've added a "Working" section to the right indicating my current freelance status. (Don't hesitate, act now! I'm available!) And I've also plumped up the "for hire" section of the site with some details about what I've done and what I can do. If you or anyone you know is looking for an experienced web developer for pretty much any type of work, please let me know.
Battle jet lag
Jet lag: 3
Meg nut: 0
I went to sleep at 8 pm last night, though I think it might be related to a touch of sickness I've acquired. Regardless, being up before the sun holds no charm for me. I've done it enough in my life (every day for four years in college because of rowing, for example) that I never want to experience it again, especially on a daily basis.
Megnut as MacGyver
I have all these MacGyver-like thoughts to share with you regarding my airplane experience but I'm a little afraid I'll end up on some list someplace, and I still need to fly in two weeks to DC and Boston. Isn't it a little silly to be afraid of such things? But if people are being prevented from flying because of the books they're reading [via rebecca], I can't imagine what would happen if I were to tell you about how I realized that my carry-on bag contained a long metal rod, and that Air France had given me a real glass glass (accompanied by a useless plastic knife), and how I pictured I could break the glass, tape it to the end of a long metal pokey rod and make a bayonet on-board the aircraft. If I told you that, would they still let me fly?
Normally I don't concern myself with thoughts of how to make a weapon out of my personal belongings, but something about the arbitrary, and seeming short-sightedness, of the new security measures, led me to it. Tweezers were prohibited. Tweezers. What, is someone going to tweeze the flight attendant's eye brow until the pilot relinquishes control? But then they serve GLASS. And a sharp-as-hell fork. But a plastic knife. Apparently one of the victims of September 11 was common sense.
Note: I don't know what the solution to this is.
Speaking of security though, I have to say, kudos to Charles de Gaulle (the airport, though the man was great too) and Air France in Paris. I've never seen anything stricter, much tighter than SFO. Three passport checks, the final one half-way down the jet way. And random bag inspections on the jet way as well. And lots of people with machine guns patrolling the airport. I think I've seen enough machine guns.
Jet lag and movie review
Ugh jet lag, you bastard! I was asleep by 9 pm last night and wide awake at 5:30 am this morning watching Friends in the dark on the sofa. And now I feel like it's bed time and it's only 3 pm. My body may be in San Francisco but its clock is still in Berlin.
I really wish I'd gotten more of a chance to blog from Berlin but I didn't happen upon enough internet cafes at the right times to do so. Many of my thoughts and observations now seem "outdated" somehow, though I plan on summarizing a lot of them with some pictures in the next few days. In the meantime, a movie review:
On the plane to Europe I saw Bridget Jones' Diary, which I enjoyed, but only because it was a modern-day remake of Pride & Prejudice (as you know, one of my top ten favorites ever). Well, it wasn't exactly a remake, and I'm not sure it was supposed to be (though I'm also not sure how it couldn't have been), what with the main love interest's name being Darcy, and Darcy being played by Colin Firth (of BBC Mr. Darcy fame). And of course, she doesn't like him and he doesn't like her. And he's a bit prideful. And she instead falls for someone else (her boss) who is superficially more likable but in reality a cad. And the cad-like boss and Mr. Darcy were friends but now hate each other due to something that occurred, etc. etc. etc. Just like Miss Austen laid it out for us nearly two hundred years ago. And yet, it was still entertaining, especially seen when cooped up on a plane for twelve hours.
Returned from Germany
I'm back safe and sound. Much to tell, later. Now to bed.
Hello from rainz Berlin and
Hello from rainz Berlin and the Wizards of OS conference (where I'm typing on a QWERTZ keyboard and can't locate the Y). After 20 hours of travelling we arrived safelz to our hotel and promptlz fell asleep. Now we've seen some sights, eaten something I don't know the name of, and successfullz registered for the conference and ordered coffee and Coke. Quite a vacation we're having here. I'm all readz for mz presentation tonight at 8pm and can't wait until it's overwith. Then I've nothing to do but hang out and enjoz the citz. And trz to learn a little more German. Not as manz people seem to speak English over here as we'd hoped so we're flailing about a bit. I'll report more on everzthing later, for now just wanted to report we've made it here.
Off to Germany
I've made a couple more tweaks to the style sheet and hopefully that fixes the design for the remaining folks that were having trouble. If not, well I'll look into when I return because...
I'm off to Berlin today for the Wizards of OS conference and my panel on P2P Journalism. Thanks to all who wrote in with tips on places to visit, I'll do my darndest to see everything you've suggested. I'll try to update a bit from Berlin but it might not happen, and I won't have access to email while I'm away, so don't expect any quick replies. I'll be back on the 19th with tales of my German adventure.
More feedback equals more changes
More thanks is due to those folks that wrote in about the Mac IE 5.1 problem. I've now added a class with "background:#69A52D;" to the image. Hopefully that fixed it. If it didn't, well you might just want to use the lo-fi megnut '96 with which the navigation will be visible.
I added a tiny bit of content, not as much as I'd hoped to add today, but things have been hectic here at HQ.
Dreaming of being a chef
For a long time I've dreamt of being a patissiere/baker/pastry chef, and lately I've been considering it more seriously. Of all the things I spend time doing, cooking and baking is perhaps my favorite. I lose myself in the kitchen and hours can pass while I'm happily dicing and sifting and I won't notice. It's also one of the rare times when my mind shuts off and I live in the moment. The constant monologue that churns through my brain is silenced and I focus on scrubbing potatoes or picking herbs from my window box. I'm not sure if cooking would retain its magic for me if it were my job, but I'd be willing to try it out. My summer job at a pie shop was one of my favorite jobs ever. So I'd like to do this Career Discovery: An Introduction to Professional Baking and Pastry run by the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. Except that it costs $795 and I can't afford that. I'll stick to baking tarte tatins at home for the time being.
Thanks for the feedback
Thanks to everyone who's sent in email regarding the new design, I really appreciate your help. It seems there's a problem with Mac IE 5.1 (5.0 and 5.5 seem to be fine). For some reason the green background of the <div> isn't appearing in the nav bar. Anyone know why? I'm stumped. Aside from that, it seems like it works in the broswers which support CSS. And for those of you using browsers that don't fully support CSS, I strongly encourage you to upgrade to a version that does, if at all possible. (Not only to view this site, but to improve your online experience in general.)
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