Musings

Bravado or Irrelevant?

futura — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:23:36 GMT

As reported by the BBC, "Cyber attack on Pentagon e-mail"...

A hacker has managed to penetrate one of the Pentagon's e-mail systems, leading officials to take up to 1,500 accounts offline.

...

Asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Mr Gates said: "I don't do e-mail. I'm a low-tech person."

Is it just that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has an overdose of bravado, or does it simply prove how irrelevant he is in today's world?

How does he exist as US Defense Secretary without utilizing e-mail to communicate?

It's one more symptom of an American defense establishment woefully out of touch.

Playing with Mark's Camera

futura — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:42:06 GMT

Mark purchased a new MPG digital video cam. Very nice, small size. Definitely not DV quality. But fun to mess with.

Here's a quick edit involving gratuitous footage of a 15-year Lagavulin (wmv).

Calvin & Hobbes: All your base belong to us.

futura — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:19:10 GMT

Lola's

futura — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:31:16 GMT

Tonight we explored a bit more of New Orleans. We needed some baby food so we identified a Whole Foods on Esplanade just off City Park and decided we'd head that way. Not only was there a Whole Foods, but the Canal Street street-car ran right up to Carrollton Ave and we could transfer to another street-car to head over to the park and Esplanade. We knew little A would love the street-car. He is fascinated with all things train.

It was hovering around dinner time so I jumped online and did a quick Google search on local restaurants that would be relatively close to our initial stop at Whole Foods.

A little join called Lola's showed up. Frommer's had a write up and the quote was, "Please don't put this into the book..." and mentioned it was a great little local joint. It could be exactly what we were looking for, or an over-hyped tourist dive making us wish we had gone elsewhere. It was billed as a good little Spanish place with great paella and garlic shrimp. Ok.

The street-car ride was fairly uneventful except for A eating up every minute. It was apparent on our ride up that as soon as we left the city and headed into midtown that there were vestiges of Katrina's wrath. Several businesses had "Now Open" signs, but many were still boarded up or deserted.

At Carollton we hopped off and waited for the transfer. While we waited, an Explorer dressed like a contractor truck stopped at the light with bass booming, window down. Little A kicked it up spinning in circles and dancing murmuring something about "Digweed, Digweed, Digweed" - as anything dance-music related is "Digweed". All respect to the master, I hope to refine his electronic music identification so that Digweed will be reliably noticed. At this point, 1992 Two Unlimited could be mistakenly flagged as "Digweed".

Giving up on the transfer wait, we began walking down Carrollton to the park where Esplanade branches off and heads back to the river. Dusk was settling in and it was getting fairly dark as we turned down Esplanade. Two women were heading into their house when I turned to ask, "Is there a Whole Foods down here?" Google Maps told me it existed, but the women both stated, "Not anymore." I asked, "Is Lola's still there?" "Yes, next door to Terranova's".

It took a moment to hit me but we had just been talking about Terranova's because my wife had mentioned it being featured in an article on Marketplace. It's one of a dying breed of locally owned supermarkets. It was also located in New Orleans and had re-opened after Katrina and has been getting great business since. When it hit me, we were both pretty excited. We enjoy running across little things like that.

Alas, they had no baby food but we picked up some essentials and then made our way to Lola's just next door.

Lola's is a small little joint filled with paintings from local artist Corey Allen of Moss Street Gallery. Unpretentious comes to mind. Simple, straight-forward. Frommer's said there are typically lines out the door and there is usually a wait. Katrina has obviously had its effect here - and it was Wednesday night. Only two or three tables were filled upon our arrival. The waiter was friendly and very helpful. Even in such a small space, they welcomed our stroller and allowed us prop it up near our table.

Upon sitting down on the sturdy, hard-wood chairs it scraped against the cement floor and made a yelping noise exactly like that of a dog. None other than our ex-dog, Flush. Little A was instantly interested and began looking under the table for the "dog". "Bush?" (Bush as in Flush with a B) he would inquire. He was sure there was a dog under our table for the duration of the meal. Very cute. But also annoying when we could not convince him there was no dog under our table.

Service was fairly prompt, and very friendly. We ordered a bottle of sangria, and an appetizer of garlic shrimp - supposedly their specialty. Special it was and had a great taste. A plate of 3 warm pieces of bread were brought out with a home-made garlic butter that was heavenly. The garlic shrimp was very tasty - a bit spicy, very-garlic, but rich in spice. Not fishy shrimp at all.

For our main course we had salmon and lamb. Both were superb. My salmon was cooked "medium" and was super-tender, and very rich in flavor. Cooked simply in a red-pepper sauce - but very lightly dressed. A little bowl of sauce on the side had a pesto flavor and complimented the salmon very nicely.

The lamb was a stew with vegetables. Very rich, but the best lamb my wife has ever had. She said, "I've been cooking lamb all wrong."

For desert was opted for the flour-less tort. It was a solid slice of pure chocolate bliss. A piece of cake wishing it were a candy bar. It was dense like a brick of mud, but so far from a brick of mud in taste it probably ruins the analogy to relate it as such. The tort was possibly the best tort I've ever had. It was firm but tender, and not too moist. Topped with white and milk chocolate chips and a dollop of real whip cream and glazed with a raspberry/cherry type sauce. It went down fast.

The boy had migrated into pre-break-down mode so we knew it was near time to leave. He also paused thoughtfully half-way through and decided to bless us with a super-full, nasty dirty diaper. We had let him sit in it long enough and we had to get out to get him changed.

Lola's only accepts cash. So be prepared if you indulge in as much as we did. It's not overly expensive, but it adds up fast. I guess more so when you're not used to buying appetizers or alcohol when eating out. Main courses were roughly 10-20 dollars.

Visit Lola's.

After changing the boy, we headed back via a route recommended by the waiter to get us back to Canal St. faster than going back up to Carrollton. On our way we passed a film set. A neighbor to the filming stated it was for a movie called, "College". A semi-clone of "Revenge of the Nerds". A house was decorated like a frat house and its lawn spread with tents of filming gear. We didn't see any cameras roll, or anyone worth knowing. What is most interesting is that this type of movie is actually receiving funding - from someone. Someone wants to spend their money producing this movie and making it into a visual reality. I don't have any blockbuster ideas at the moment, but I certainly could come up with something better than "College" to spend someone's million bucks on.

We got back to Canal St. and hopped on the street-car to head back downtown.

All in all a great evening and a fun time exploring another part of New Orleans.

It's definitely a city in disrepair, but life is going on. If you have an opportunity to visit and contribute to the place, you should.

Pictures by Corey Allen of Lola's:

Lola's Reopens

Almost Six at Lola's

Lola's

Lola's at Night

New Seat

futura — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 04:28:00 GMT

I need a new seat for my bike.

My brother-in-law Randy recommended looking over on www.mtbr.com for what they have to say.

I did, and here are the contenders.

WTB Laser V Stealth
Brooks B.17

I honestly cannot decide between the two by simply looking at the reviews on mtbr.com for each. I love the Brooks B.17 for the style, quality, and long-life aspects. The WTB caters to the more toward my desire to have a good all-round MTB saddle. Although, realistically off-road riding hasn't been much of a reality in the flat plains of Iowa.

Maybe the B.17 would be best.

Check out Brooks Saddles online. They have some very nice stuff. Their attention to craftsmanship also really tempts me. Craftsmanship: One of those things I really miss about England.

Tangent, Other Examples:
Good Cheese: Red Leicester + more.
Gardening: Haws Watering Cans + more
Clothing: Burberry + more
Scotch: Laphroaig + more
Cars: Mini + Jaguar + Rover + more (legacy, not necessarily who owns them now...)

“Well, if there's a bright center to the city, you're in the suburb that it's farthest from.“

futura — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:37:00 GMT

I managed to ride my way into work today. Now that my office just migrated outward, this is a good thing.

Total distance to and fro, 17.02 miles.

Total time, 1 hr 15 min.

Average speed, 13.7 mph

Pretty decent for a strong headwind there, and a nice pushback home.

Blue is to, red is return.

Now if I can just habitualize the experience.

Reading List - 6/14/2005

futura — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 06:22:00 GMT

Current Books On-Tap:

Unspeakable - Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror - Os Guiness (Harper)
Code Complete 2nd Edition - Steve McConnell (Microsoft Press)
The Art of Project Management - Scott Berkun (O'Reilly)

Upcoming:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step - OLAP Train, Reed Jacobson (Microsoft Press)
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative - Edward R. Tufte (Graphics Press)
Envisioning Information - Edward R. Tufte (Graphics Press)
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick (Vintage)

Cloverleaf Dairy - The Best Milk Ever

futura — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:55:00 GMT

I've been drinking milk for quite a long time. My whole life, in fact.

I have also experienced milk in many different places. I know the varieties available. I know the fake stuff from the real stuff. The boxed to the unboxed. One thing is for sure, pasteurization is a good thing. Why they don't pasteurize in Thailand I will never know. But now that you know, you won't need to find out, either.

Last week I was introduced to what I believe is the best milk in the world.

A local dairy is producing organic, hormone-free milk. I've had their chocolate milk, and cream, and both are fabulous.

They don't have a website, but were written up in the newspaper. The place is called Cloverleaf Dairy. You'll find it in the aesthetically pleasing, retro, fully functional, thick glass bottles on the shelf at your local Dahl's. It's worth the price. And don't forget to return the bottles. The deposit is steep. But the payoff is well worth it.

City Fox

futura — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:29:00 GMT

I miss the city foxes in London. Always a delight to see. A bit out of the ordinary, perhaps.

Tonite, after I threw a couple of Tilapia filets onto the grill (see recipe below) I hopped on my cruiser and headed for a quick ride. I decided that a spin around the cemetary several blocks away would be fun, so I headed that way. I made my way into the cemetary and rode deep, so that I could circle around and head back out to make it home in time to have un-charred Tilapia filets.

I took a road that headed up a hill which I hadn't taken before, and when I reached the summit I stopped and paused to catch my breath and look around. The weather wasn't too nice and a storm was building up all around me, so I was checking out the clouds. I happened to look down the hill to my left, and to my surprise, a little scraggly fox was bounding across the road and looking around. He didn't see me at all.

I dropped my bike down and tried to run around the hill to see if I could see the fox. I didn't, so I headed back to the bike and continued riding. There he was in front of me. As soon as he saw me, he paused and thought about it for a moment, and then bounded away in a slight hopping/running sort of way. A ways away, he stopped to evaluate my reaction. I just stood there looking at him. After a bit of observation, he ran a bit further, and then I turned and began to ride away again. He seemed to find this very interesting. He had run to the bottom of the hill and was sort of peeking out from behind a tombstone as I rode away. I turned around to see him again, and he was standing on all fours on top of the tombstone watching me ride away. I waved goodbye, and headed back to get some dinner.

I have to admit, I forgot to tell you something else. I originally decided to ride over to the cemetary to hopefully catch a glimpse of this supposed cougar/mountain lion that has been spotted near there. I feel like I was rewarded by seeing the fox, although now my expectations are up for this cougar sighting I really desire to have.

Tilapia Filet:

- Butter
- Garlic
- Tilapia Filets (1 per person)
- Spring Onions
- Mixed spices, fresh or dried: peppercorns, basil, salt, and whatever else.

I melt about a quarter stick of butter under the broiler in the oven in a small bowl. Once melted, I press 5-6 cloves of garlic into the butter and stir it up.

Rip a piece of tin foil about the size of a piece of 8.5”x11” paper per filet. Lay each filet down in the center of each foil sheet.

Using a spoon, spread the butter and garlic mixture on the filets.

Sprinkle some herbs and/or dried spices onto the filets.

Chop up some spring onions and lay them on top of the filets.

Now, wrap up the filets in the foil, I typically fold up the sides around the filet, and with the “longer” side, fold it up in the air, in the middle, and “roll” the foil down so it closes. Just make sure the filets are sealed in there - they don't need to be airtight, just enough so that all that goodness cooks in the foil, and doesn't cook off.

Fire up the grill, put it on medium, and throw the foiled filets down and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Good, simple fish. Enjoy.

And beware of the cougar.

Junior Boys - Part 2

futura — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 04:30:00 GMT

I picked up the Junior Boys LP last week down at Zzz Records. Read a review.

Two comments:

1. Junior Boys are going to rock the house.

2. You can't beat a needle on wax.

Enjoy this track, ripped straight from the vinyl, although down-sampled for your bandwidth needs (and besides, support these guys and buy your own)

Junior Boys - Birthday (.ogg, ~83kbps, 2.5MB)