Check out this screenshot of Microsoft Office 12, then look at this blog post I made in October and watch my little Flash demo.
Note how Office 12 totally copied me. Well, they copied the simplest and least controversial aspect of my design: the formatting bar that pops up when you make a selection. The whole getting-rid-of-fixed-menus-and-toolbars-altogether thing… yeah, they didn’t pick that up.
Which means: plenty of innovation left for the rest of us!
I just had an absolutely delicious burrito… I sauteed up some onions, garlic, green peppers, spinach, and black beans, tossed in some cumin, coriander, oregano, ground chiles, and rolled all of that in a whole wheat tortilla with some chopped onion, salsa, and cheese. I ate it with some of the great smokey hot sauce I brought back from a taco stand in San Diego.
Yum.
Tragically, I didn’t realized I had forgotten to add the fresh tomato I carefully bicycled back from BloomingFoods today until after I had wrapped the thing. Ah well. I’ll make another one after the show on Wednesday.
I will say that whole wheat tortillas are not as stretchy as white, making them less user friendly, although wrapping the burrito in foil mostly solves that problem. And I probably would’ve liked a little rice in there for texture, but I don’t have any cooked rice laying around.
I think part of the problem with store-bought burritos is that they never get the proportions the way I like. I like a LOT of salsa or tomatoes in my burritos to give them that juicy, sweet taste, and I like to have some good crunch in there as well. Chipotle gets the crunch right with their fajita burrito with lettuce, but I never seem to get enough salsa. Plus their burritos are ENORMOUS, and because I feel compelled to eat the whole thing I always feel like crap afterward.
Laughing Planet has interesting burritos, but they always taste a little bland. I think they just need more salsa and maybe a little extra salt in some of the ingredients.
Yeah, this is a terribly blog entry, I know. But I’m posting it anyway.
I have been away all weekend, so I just found out today that the South Dakota Senate approved a near-complete ban on abortion this past Wednesday. The ban allows abortion only in cases where a woman could die from childbirth.
In practical terms, this means that women in South Dakota will need to drive up to 10 hours to find an abortion clinic. It also means that we’ll likely see another case like Roe v. Wade in now more conservative Supreme Court.
I’ve written about abortion here before, and I’m pretty equivocal about it. Lately I have been leaning towards the anti-government, pro-choice side of the argument. I’m sure all of the anti-government conservatives here in Indiana agree with me on that one.
*cough*
It’s an exceedingly complicated issue, and I don’t envy the justices on the Supreme Court who will decide this case.
I spend a lot of time browsing the web and come across interesting things all the time, but I very rarely re-post them here, despite the fact that posting links that you had visited was the original purpose of the “web log”.
But I found a page today that was extremely thought provoking and I thought I would pass it on. It is a story of a woman who was diagnosed with cancer twice in her life, first at 21 and then 31, undergoing two mastectomies. In late 2004, she ran a 10k race, topless. Of that experience, she says:
I learned that if you don’t see an image that represents you, you need to embody that image. I would like to encourage all of you to expose yourselves, to engage in an activity where you will experience fear and potential public humiliation, while heading toward a deeper understanding of yourself and how your actions can resonate with a community. – Tania Katan
I really like that quote and that sentiment. It’s a frame of mind I would like to embrace more. I think I am probably a little scared that I derive much of my power from being reserved and mysterious at times, but that’s just fear. In my head, I know that if I step outside of that safe place that I’ll have a better understanding of the world and be a more effective human being.
I also saw an interesting bumper sticker recently:
Fear makes people do stupid things
Just some food for thought.
Normally I run a pretty casual pace. I almost never time myself because I don’t set speed goals, I set distance goals. Today, however, I just felt really fast, and I happened to look at the clock when I ran out the door so I know just how fast I went: 7.5 miles in 1:05, which means I was doing 8:40 splits. I won’t win any 5k’s at that pace, but I think it’s pretty good for the distance, and I am pretty proud of myself.
On my upcoming 50k, assuming my knees and ankles hold up, I’ll probably be aiming for more like 12:30 splits. And by “aiming for” I mean “not paying attention to”. And by “12:30 splits” I mean “not dying”.
This is for all of my colleagues who are interested in that exciting space where design and social change overlap. I just ran across an organization called “Design That Matters“, which “is building a worldwide system that enables the citizen sector, university students, and businesses to jointly innovate for social change.” I haven’t really looked at the site, but it seems similar to Kickstart (formerly Approtec).
FYI.
Punk night: totally worth it. Saw The Nicatones, The Methadones, The Queers, all were excellent. Couldn’t stop dancing the whole time. Interesting facts: the bottoms of my jeans look like they were dipped in chocolate. I am about to take my third shower today. My ears are ringing.
Now off to sleep.
I have been reading (read: living vicariously through) a great webcomic called Questionable Content. Reading the archives, I have learned several new words, and you know what they say… the best way to learn a new word is to use it in a sentence on your blog. So, here goes:
I had a great time visiting Carnegie Mellon a couple weekends ago, and two weekends from now I am going to visit San Diego. I am really excited about both programs, and I feel like I have a shot at both, so my anxiety quotient is within tolerable levels lately. That said, admissions processes can be wonky, and I’ll probably start freaking out again as I get closer to my next visit. I am hoping to hear back from some of the other programs I applied to, but these things take time. But it looks like I am well on my way to moving up the titular totem pole.
I went for a 7-mile run today, which was fantastic. I really feel like a distance runner when I cover that distance easily and clamor for more. But I am trying to go slowly in my training, just running that distance every other day. Today’s run was really exciting because for the first time I felt a connection between my yoga practice in my running. Today in Yoga we did pelvic openers and some Big Toe variations that were focused on strengthening our core muscles and connecting the movements in our limbs to our navel centers. I know that sounds really sketchy and new-agey, but it basically just means we were working on balance and stability in our abs and back so that our arms and legs can move more freely and gracefully and in a more balanced way.
Anyway, when I went for a run, I found that my core was extremely stable, and my pelvis was really loose and open, which meant that my legs were swinging forward really easily and efficiently. It was awesome. And it was all Yoga. I felt an intense sense of equipoise, easily shifting my weight forward and back to find that perfect sense of balance.
I have been reading a book of personal stories about running ultramarathons (races longer than 26.2 miles) and getting more and more excited about the prospect. I’ve only cleared 20 mile twice in my life, so I’m hardly trained up for a 100-miler, but I have decided that I am going to try to run the Chicago Lakefront 50K in April. I still have to see how my training goes over the next three weeks or so before I make a final committment, but I think I can do it, and I think I have time to train for it, and I think it would make me really happy, so I’m going to do it.
Tonight I am going to Punk Night, where The Queers are playing. It should be…. uh…. punk. I just hope the music isn’t too loud. The last time I went (which was the first time) the amps were turned up high enough to make a boy want to defenestrate.
Thank you, answers.com.
Through some stroke of luck, I discovered in my inbox today a flyer for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival which takes place in Tennessee June 16-18. Look at this list of bands:
Radiohead
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Phil Lesh & Friends
Beck
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
Oysterhead
Bonnie Raitt
Death Cab for Cutie
moe.
Bright Eyes
The Neville Brothers
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
Buddy Guy
Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley
Ben Folds
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Dr. John
Les Claypool
Matisyahu
G. Love & Special Sauce
Umphrey’s McGee
My Morning Jacket
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
Steel Pulse
Mike Gordon & Ramble Dove
Cat Power
Medeski Martin & Wood
Nickel Creek
Gomez
Atmosphere
Steve Earle
Blues Traveler
Disco Biscuits
Amadou & Mariam
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
The Dresden Dolls
Son Volt
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Jerry Douglas
Soulive
Rusted Root
Devendra Banhart Band
Donavon Frankenreiter
Mike Doughty
Sasha
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
The Magic Numbers
Bill Frisell
Seu Jorge
Bettye LaVette
Dungen
Shooter Jennings
Rebirth Brass Band
Robinella
Andrew Bird
Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk
Steel Train
Jackie Greene
Devotchka
The Wood Brothers
dios (malos)
Toubab Krewe
The Motet
Marah
I-Nine
Balkan Beat Box
The Cat Empire
This is sort of insane… Radiohead, Beck, Oysterhead, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Ben Folds, Cat Power, Medeski Martin & Wood, Blues Traveller, and Devotchka are all bands who I would probaby pay to see alone, and here is an opportunity to see MANY of them in one weekend. And it’s an excuse to camp out in a dirty field and otherwise live in miserable conditions. It sounds great.
If any of you want to go, snag a ticket (they are about $210 after fees and shipping) and then email or call me so we can make crazy plans. If you are going to be on the east coast, I can probably pick you up and we’ll road trip it down.
Wow, excited.
A few weeks ago I had was in the grocery store with Marty and Apurva and we saw the head baker dude (not sure what his real title is) in the pasta isle aisle. He is a friend of Marty’s so Marty asked him what sauce he recommended. He gave a recommendation, and went on to tell us that what we should really do, for the best flavor, is put the sauce in a saucepan with a cup of water, boil it down, add another cup of water, boil that down, and only then serve the sauce. “And I used to be the sauce chef at an Italian restaurant,” he added, to bolster his credibility.
We tried it, and it was good, but we had no way of knowing whether it was the sauce itself or the reducing that made it good. So yesterday Kynthia and I went to Sahara Mart and got the cheapest sauce they had (which was still a rather nice sauce) and we did a real live experiment, with a control and everything.
We reduced one jar twice, and just warmed the other one up. We also made fresh pasta which turned out to be delicious. And Lucy supplied a wonderful salad while David and Will supplied their natural charm.
Turns out, in multiple taste tests, we couldn’t tell the difference. No substantial change in flavor. The color of the sauce that was reduced was a somewhat richer and deeper red, which looked appetizing, but it didn’t do anything for our tastebuds.
Our next project is to go to Kroger and find the cheapest, skankiest tomato sauce we can find, and re-run the experiment and see if it makes a difference there. I’ll let you know what happens. Right now I am going to go for a run and then make some croutons. I have an idea for a crouton recipe that I want to try out. I’ll let you know how that goes too. I’m sure you’re all dying with anticipation.
