Heinlein - Specialization is for Insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Core Human skills

- post via Kottke.org

Children Full of Life

A must-watch documentary about the teaching of compassion, empathy, and team spirit in Japan.

Dumpster Dipping (NYT)

Dumpsters: 6-7 feet deep, and often hugely wide (have you seen the 30-footers?). Line with sandbags and waterproof material. Add water, and you get an instant swimming pool!

Check out the urban oasis below.

Things to Eat and Not To Eat

Some interesting and unfamiliar food items that I came across on Wikipedia.

The common ingredient: Egg!
Scotch Egg- hard-boiled egg wrapped in mincemeat and fried
Welsh Rarebit (Welsh Rabbit) - toasted bread covered in cheese sauce
Croque-Monsieur- grilled cheese and ham sandwich
Brain (as Food!) - GROSS, MAN...which brings us to the next article,
Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy
Loco Moco - Hawaiian diner meal consisting of rice topped with burger patty, fried egg, and gravy

Others (mostly bacon dishes):
Angels on Horseback (UK) - oysters wrapped in bacon
Meze - Middle Eastern appetizers
Sfiha - Chaldean pizza
Baconnaise (I shudder to think...) and Bacon Lip Balm
Chivito - Uruguayan sandwich
Luther Burger - Burger with Glazed Donuts in place of bun

And now, I have the serious munchies for bacon & eggs.

Caught A Lite Sneeze (by Tori Amos) - Evans Blue Cover

A little less delicate, much more angry. How often do male bands do covers of female-sung songs, anyway?

Green Mobile Phone

Motorola recently released a new cell phone for T-Mobile that is made from recycled plastic water bottles.

The Moto Renew claims to have a carbon footprint of zero, based on the fact that Motorola will purchase carbon credits for every Renew consumers purchase. (Could it be any clearer that their target market is people like me?)

Checked it out in the retail store today since I'm shopping for a new phone (and possibly new carrier). I was kind of disappointed, since plastic isn't the best material for cell phones. It was very light and felt like a toy in my hand, almost like a Barbie play phone. I imagine it would get very hot after a few hours' use and that the plastic, however nicely recycled, wouldn't dissipate heat very well - not quite as well as the cold-to-the-touch sleek titanium gadgets that I've been spoiled by. It didn't help much that T-Mobile didn't have a live model available for me to play with. I was almost going to switch carriers for this phone!

Riff that gets stuck in my head and hits me when I'm least expecting it, like 2pm on a Tuesday at work.

In The News

"I Got the Sucker!" The White House Infested with Flies.

Cappadocia, Turkey

LA TIMES: Cappadocia's Fairy-tale-like landscape.

I WANT TO EAT EVERYTHING.

White Castle

Chicken Nuggets

Croissant Sandwich

Xiao Long Bao

Ravioli


Which of the above would actually taste good after going through a blender?

FOOD IS EVERYWHERE AND I AM NOT IMMUNE TO FOOD ADVERTISING. ARRGGHH. I HAVE TO EAT BABY FOOD FOR AWHILE WHILE MY MOUTH HEALS.

The Lamb, the Ram, the Heavenly Scales...

Go Dipsy! Go Dipsy! Go Dipsy!

More stuff I found interesting lately.

A pretty good article from the March 2009 issue of Fast Company titled, "What Should I Do With My Life Now?"

Earworm of the moment.
Beyonce-Halo.

Naturaleza

I realized why I prefer eco-vacations to culture-vacations: because God's glory will always be greater than anything ever made by man. The most marvelous architecture and art in the world, the world's splendid steel-and-glass cities, museums, streets lined with cafes and beautiful people - All pale in comparison to God's glory.

Some people like to go to Vegas, casinos, or take decadent cruises to tropical beaches. I like cold-weather winter vacations to see nature. It gives me great joy to see clear blue skies, endless dark seas, rocky mountain peaks, the northern lights in winter, constellations of stars in twinkling in the infinite night sky.

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim, You Are Amazing, God.
Happy Easter!

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13, 21...

Mandibles!

Huge Rabbit.



English Mastiff PUPPY.




Just Born, the place where Peeps are fabricated.

Acai, "Purple Gold."

After much exhortation from my mother, I was finally convinced to take a trip to Costco to buy some cactus juice. (It's good for you!) I couldn't find what she was telling me about, so I bought Acai berry juice instead (~$9.50 for two one-liter bottles).

I drank a small glass of it with my dinner. It was bittersweet and had a thick, viscous consistency, almost like a syrup - not like any of that watered-down Apple Dandy stuff that kids drink today. I was pretty buzzed for awhile, and I'm wired on it now! I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep; it's almost 10pm and I feel pretty energetic. I should've had it early in the morning as recommended, as a replacement for coffee/tea.

This stuff is great and claims to have the equivalent of 110 servings of fruit in terms of antioxidant power in one serving. I don't know if it would be great for losing weight, though. In terms of taste, the bottle I got had blueberry juice mixed in, so I couldn't tell what the pure juice tasted like. It might be pretty bad....

It's pretty amazing that the acai berry has gone mainstream, a lowly, once-unknown fruit from the Amazon now blown to stardom by Oprah and spam generators. This once-humble fruit is now available to the general public, Walmart shoppers! According to this NYT article, 53 new acai-containing food products were introduced in the US in 2008, up from 4 in 2004, with over $106 million in sales in 2008.

Sunday

Sometimes you wish you could go back and undo something. Sometimes you wish it were as easy as pressing CTRL+Z, but unfortunately, there's no "undo" button on life.

The only person who can hit the undo button for us is Christ. Through his blood, we are made perfect again, and all our flaws become nothing.

Fried Eggplant Sandwich

Sorry for the lack of content. Eat this in the meantime.

EDIT: One of the neat features of Blogger is that it saves old drafts that you never published and allows you to retroactively publish them. I just went and published a few of those half-thoughts from earlier this year.

Slumdog Millionaire - Mausam and Escape by AR Rahman

Pretty intense.