Is Randall Munroe of xkcd hoping that another one of his creations will become a reality?
I hope so too.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Xposed Knowledgable Comic Desires
Is Randall Munroe of xkcd hoping that another one of his creations will become a reality?
I hope so too.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sweet & Sour Winter Curry Recipe
Put your money where your mouth is.
But first, turn that money into food.
Do you want to put that money into some corporations pocket? Or a farmer?
I'm going to put my money in your pocket, in the form of my culinary knowledge and experience. How am I going to do that? By putting up a recipe every week for your pleasure.
I know we're all busy during the week, and I am no exception. I like to spend my weeknights recovering from the day and preparing for the next day, so I tend to eat left-overs, simple food, or eat out.
But I love to cook, so every weekend, I put in a few hours to make something that will last into the week. I try to pack in as much nutritious goodness to stave off all the snacks and free food that is nutritionally suspect.
So once a week, I'll put up a recipe that I've made, for you to do with as you will.
This week is a curry, because it uses a lot of vegetables that I had in the fridge. It's incredibly hearty, and warming on those cold winter nights. I also made some wheat berries to go with it, but it would be great with rice.
Sweet&Sour Curry.ppt
Happy Cooking!
But first, turn that money into food.
Do you want to put that money into some corporations pocket? Or a farmer?
I'm going to put my money in your pocket, in the form of my culinary knowledge and experience. How am I going to do that? By putting up a recipe every week for your pleasure.
I know we're all busy during the week, and I am no exception. I like to spend my weeknights recovering from the day and preparing for the next day, so I tend to eat left-overs, simple food, or eat out.
But I love to cook, so every weekend, I put in a few hours to make something that will last into the week. I try to pack in as much nutritious goodness to stave off all the snacks and free food that is nutritionally suspect.
So once a week, I'll put up a recipe that I've made, for you to do with as you will.
This week is a curry, because it uses a lot of vegetables that I had in the fridge. It's incredibly hearty, and warming on those cold winter nights. I also made some wheat berries to go with it, but it would be great with rice.
Sweet&Sour Curry.ppt
Happy Cooking!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
slow, prudent, and famous
That meal looks good, but slow down! eating fast triples your risk of being obese. Eat slowly and stop before you are full (give it time, you'll get there). In my experience, this type of change is helped by constant reminder (write it on your hand) and determination.
To make matters worse, if that food you've been scarfing is of a 'western diet' which caused 35% of heart attack risk worldwide. A prudent diet high in fruit and vegetable is the way to go. Oriental diet did not have an effect on risk, so I would imagine that more work needs to be done.
Speaking of that unhealthy American food tripling risks- we may be in a credit crisis, but we're have a rich food history, these are 11 famous foods made in America! Still on my To Eat List: Oyster's Rockafeller.
Beer is healthy. Some beers are healthier than others. Some fight cancer.
Don't feel bad - there's always rice and noodles. This is fine Forn (food porn), and I'm hungry.
To make matters worse, if that food you've been scarfing is of a 'western diet' which caused 35% of heart attack risk worldwide. A prudent diet high in fruit and vegetable is the way to go. Oriental diet did not have an effect on risk, so I would imagine that more work needs to be done.
Speaking of that unhealthy American food tripling risks- we may be in a credit crisis, but we're have a rich food history, these are 11 famous foods made in America! Still on my To Eat List: Oyster's Rockafeller.
Beer is healthy. Some beers are healthier than others. Some fight cancer.
Don't feel bad - there's always rice and noodles. This is fine Forn (food porn), and I'm hungry.
Intent of Statement
This collection of thoughts and ideas will serve as a meeting place for the following topics:
Improvement of the quality of life, that is, the health you and me. Even if that health includes a moderate amount of unhealthy activity. Remember: everything in moderation, including moderation. To my mind, health is grounded in three categories: food, exercise, and lifestyle.
If I am what I eat, and I'm a food scientist, am I really a me scientist? If you truly what you eat (and you are), do you want to be made of a Big Mac or an apple? Every meal is an opportunity to experience delicious taste and nutrition perspective. Something that tastes good while consumed and then gives you a stomach ache or a fat stomach is not good. The (western) human pallet likes salty, sweet, and fried food, and food producers have monetized this (and will continue to do so) while people get fatter and deader. Wake your mouth and your mind up to the world! Use those omnivorous teeth to devour all that you can, for whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger! Always remember- garbage in, garbage out.
Exercise is the second wheel on the tricycle of healthy life. Living is defined by metabolism and catabolism - breaking down energy from food and then using that energy. You want to lose weight? burn more calories than you consume. Burning 3500 calories removes one pound of fat. Gaining 3500 calories will add a pound of fat. These things don't happen in a day, but over time, every thing adds up. If you make a budget of how you save and spend your money, why wouldn't you make a budget for calories? Use it or lose it, and get out there and be somebody!!
You can eat healthy and exercise, but if your lifestyle prevents you from being healthy, you won't be healthy. For me, this means being trapped to a desk, staring at a computer. It means being stuck in a classroom hearing about the things people have done instead of actually doing something. It also means developing habits that include diet and exercise, but also friends, culture, and improvement of self and the world we live in. Define your reality so that you create good for the world, and good things will come to you.
I have the following interests that make my life healthy by stimulating my mind body and spirit:
My studies specialized in fermentation, which I find to be the most fascinating form of food preservation. Foods we have thanks to fermentation include bread, beer, coffee, wine, cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, worcesteshire sauce, pickles, kim chi, salami, and so on and so forth. Biotech companies have recognized the importance of fermentation to harvest biomolecules from organisms, and the fundamentals of many industries are created by living beings. I believe that if you take care of the world around you, it will take care of you, and I am thankful that I have an appreciation and understanding of beings that I can't see without a microscope.
Where would we be without art? I have the utmost respect for people willing to challenge norms and experiment with the world around us, because it may just be one beautiful experiment. Music, movies, paintings, sculpture, performance, I love that which is bold and demands discussion. I know that it's possible to re-package people's expectations in a slightly new way; I've seen Hollywood movies and read high school essays. That stuff bores me. Show me something new. Start a blog.
Love it and hate it, technology rules the world around us. As computers replace more and more labor in the first world, we have become a nation of consumers. We are complacent to sit back and trade 40 hours a week to do something that is on it's way to being replaced by a machine. All that being said, there are some things that computers just can't do yet. You had best invest your time in meaningful activities which won't be replaced. But until the day of reckoning, technology is a wonderful way to experience the world we live in. Use it as a tool, but don't use it just for the sake of using it. Think!
Now: On with the show!
Improvement of the quality of life, that is, the health you and me. Even if that health includes a moderate amount of unhealthy activity. Remember: everything in moderation, including moderation. To my mind, health is grounded in three categories: food, exercise, and lifestyle.
If I am what I eat, and I'm a food scientist, am I really a me scientist? If you truly what you eat (and you are), do you want to be made of a Big Mac or an apple? Every meal is an opportunity to experience delicious taste and nutrition perspective. Something that tastes good while consumed and then gives you a stomach ache or a fat stomach is not good. The (western) human pallet likes salty, sweet, and fried food, and food producers have monetized this (and will continue to do so) while people get fatter and deader. Wake your mouth and your mind up to the world! Use those omnivorous teeth to devour all that you can, for whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger! Always remember- garbage in, garbage out.
Exercise is the second wheel on the tricycle of healthy life. Living is defined by metabolism and catabolism - breaking down energy from food and then using that energy. You want to lose weight? burn more calories than you consume. Burning 3500 calories removes one pound of fat. Gaining 3500 calories will add a pound of fat. These things don't happen in a day, but over time, every thing adds up. If you make a budget of how you save and spend your money, why wouldn't you make a budget for calories? Use it or lose it, and get out there and be somebody!!
You can eat healthy and exercise, but if your lifestyle prevents you from being healthy, you won't be healthy. For me, this means being trapped to a desk, staring at a computer. It means being stuck in a classroom hearing about the things people have done instead of actually doing something. It also means developing habits that include diet and exercise, but also friends, culture, and improvement of self and the world we live in. Define your reality so that you create good for the world, and good things will come to you.
I have the following interests that make my life healthy by stimulating my mind body and spirit:
My studies specialized in fermentation, which I find to be the most fascinating form of food preservation. Foods we have thanks to fermentation include bread, beer, coffee, wine, cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, worcesteshire sauce, pickles, kim chi, salami, and so on and so forth. Biotech companies have recognized the importance of fermentation to harvest biomolecules from organisms, and the fundamentals of many industries are created by living beings. I believe that if you take care of the world around you, it will take care of you, and I am thankful that I have an appreciation and understanding of beings that I can't see without a microscope.
Where would we be without art? I have the utmost respect for people willing to challenge norms and experiment with the world around us, because it may just be one beautiful experiment. Music, movies, paintings, sculpture, performance, I love that which is bold and demands discussion. I know that it's possible to re-package people's expectations in a slightly new way; I've seen Hollywood movies and read high school essays. That stuff bores me. Show me something new. Start a blog.
Love it and hate it, technology rules the world around us. As computers replace more and more labor in the first world, we have become a nation of consumers. We are complacent to sit back and trade 40 hours a week to do something that is on it's way to being replaced by a machine. All that being said, there are some things that computers just can't do yet. You had best invest your time in meaningful activities which won't be replaced. But until the day of reckoning, technology is a wonderful way to experience the world we live in. Use it as a tool, but don't use it just for the sake of using it. Think!
Now: On with the show!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
More dopamine, please.
*The new macbooks are out, sans old-school firewall. That's not a make-or-break deal for me, the $2500 it would cost for me to get one. Looks like I'll be waiting until my current g4 breaks. In the researching of my fantasy notebook, I found it interesting to see all the hardware that apple has killed. These growing pains make sense to me, and methinks I should apply the same scrutiny to my own life.
*Need to remove that pesky appendix? Why not take it out your mouth? Better out than in, I always say.
*I found this fascinating, that obesity has been linked to a genetic variation which raises expectations for but reduces the pleasure from food. This rings very true for me, and I wonder if the phenomenon can be expanded to other life experiences - how often have you been incredibly excited for something only to be dissappointed at the fruition of your labor? What role do environmental factors come to play in this, especially when we're bombarded by messages which appeal to our emotional response, stoking our desires?
*If you drive a car, you're a victim of price gouging.
*Need to remove that pesky appendix? Why not take it out your mouth? Better out than in, I always say.
*I found this fascinating, that obesity has been linked to a genetic variation which raises expectations for but reduces the pleasure from food. This rings very true for me, and I wonder if the phenomenon can be expanded to other life experiences - how often have you been incredibly excited for something only to be dissappointed at the fruition of your labor? What role do environmental factors come to play in this, especially when we're bombarded by messages which appeal to our emotional response, stoking our desires?
*If you drive a car, you're a victim of price gouging.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Advertising
*inspired by a friend, I have written a stream-of-consciousness, slightly edited for clarity. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you do too.
At the core of the issue, I hate being told what to do. Advertising plays with and preys on human emotion because appealing to the least common denominator attracts the most people, generating the most sales. While it is understandable and necessary for advertising to enlist consumers to find a product or service that they want, too often advertising is used to tell people what they want, are, or should be. They do not create unique thought or discussion, they create followers to a cult, especially considering the cultural implications of consumption: mac vs. PC, hybrid vs. hummer, monkeys vs. robots.
The difference between what is the best product and what is the most profitable is exemplified by every failure of a company that had shown record profits the month before. The company (or person, or gadget, or whatever) becomes the baby of the world, everyone talks about it, it’s loved, it’s hated, it’s debated, it’s masturbated. The ever-decreasing attention span of the public consciousness is fixed for 14 seconds of viral fame, and the bubble grows. But just as the retraction does not erase the sex-crime allegations, nor does the apology negate the act, once the bubble has burst, the impression of a success which is actually unachievable remains, the standards are raised, and the hard-working creators of a genuine product are squeezed even harder.
The purveyors that I respect are the ones that are not after the most money they can acquire by whatever means possible. It is the ones that are genuinely trying to create good. The ones that create for the sake of creation. These are the people willing to try something because at the very least it will make their own lives better, and the process is enriched by sharing. These entities realize that they are part of a whole community, a system, a –cosm. Money is only one aspect of that system. It is another form of energy. These people realize that bigger is not always better, and that life is not worth missing to race some rats. Money is a tool used to barter for actual things, not an end to itself.
Competition has its place, and we are creatures of nature, a system that is constantly at war for energy and survival. But to provoke the tired argument of the human condition, I would pose that we are in fact somehow removed from a pure natural condition. To pinpoint this transition is beyond the scope of this essay, but human beings have the opportunity to collaborate and create something better than a man-eat-man world. Are we using all of our resources to create the best environment we can? No- those in power will not give up their power because of their sense of entitlement. There is the constant struggle between doing what is right and what is easy. And I tire so quickly of the arguement that something is the best, especially when judging is as subjective as humans (the general distaste for judged events at the Olympics are one example) would be a point which could be argued until the end of time.
And that’s what we’re drawn to – conflict, drama, excitement, action, humorous juxtapositions, emotion. These are the tools that are used to gain our attention and tell us that our penis is too small, our period is too embarrassing or uncomfortable, we can lose our fat ass with a fat-ass pill, we should buy fried fat from one corporation instead of another, or that we’re missing out on the next best thing.
The message they sell is this: You’re not OK without _____
And how much crap do we have that we don’t need? Look around you and count out the things that use daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. And then see how much you have left over that you don’t know why you still have. Now make a trip to your local second-hand store.
You’re OK.
At the core of the issue, I hate being told what to do. Advertising plays with and preys on human emotion because appealing to the least common denominator attracts the most people, generating the most sales. While it is understandable and necessary for advertising to enlist consumers to find a product or service that they want, too often advertising is used to tell people what they want, are, or should be. They do not create unique thought or discussion, they create followers to a cult, especially considering the cultural implications of consumption: mac vs. PC, hybrid vs. hummer, monkeys vs. robots.
The difference between what is the best product and what is the most profitable is exemplified by every failure of a company that had shown record profits the month before. The company (or person, or gadget, or whatever) becomes the baby of the world, everyone talks about it, it’s loved, it’s hated, it’s debated, it’s masturbated. The ever-decreasing attention span of the public consciousness is fixed for 14 seconds of viral fame, and the bubble grows. But just as the retraction does not erase the sex-crime allegations, nor does the apology negate the act, once the bubble has burst, the impression of a success which is actually unachievable remains, the standards are raised, and the hard-working creators of a genuine product are squeezed even harder.
The purveyors that I respect are the ones that are not after the most money they can acquire by whatever means possible. It is the ones that are genuinely trying to create good. The ones that create for the sake of creation. These are the people willing to try something because at the very least it will make their own lives better, and the process is enriched by sharing. These entities realize that they are part of a whole community, a system, a –cosm. Money is only one aspect of that system. It is another form of energy. These people realize that bigger is not always better, and that life is not worth missing to race some rats. Money is a tool used to barter for actual things, not an end to itself.
Competition has its place, and we are creatures of nature, a system that is constantly at war for energy and survival. But to provoke the tired argument of the human condition, I would pose that we are in fact somehow removed from a pure natural condition. To pinpoint this transition is beyond the scope of this essay, but human beings have the opportunity to collaborate and create something better than a man-eat-man world. Are we using all of our resources to create the best environment we can? No- those in power will not give up their power because of their sense of entitlement. There is the constant struggle between doing what is right and what is easy. And I tire so quickly of the arguement that something is the best, especially when judging is as subjective as humans (the general distaste for judged events at the Olympics are one example) would be a point which could be argued until the end of time.
And that’s what we’re drawn to – conflict, drama, excitement, action, humorous juxtapositions, emotion. These are the tools that are used to gain our attention and tell us that our penis is too small, our period is too embarrassing or uncomfortable, we can lose our fat ass with a fat-ass pill, we should buy fried fat from one corporation instead of another, or that we’re missing out on the next best thing.
The message they sell is this: You’re not OK without _____
And how much crap do we have that we don’t need? Look around you and count out the things that use daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. And then see how much you have left over that you don’t know why you still have. Now make a trip to your local second-hand store.
You’re OK.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Food Energy
So I'm reading Quantum and it sparked some old school thoughts about energy absorption. I started thinking of knowledge as energy, and how it can be distributed.
To recap: when energy from the sun hits a a lake, it has three paths: reflect, absorb, and refract. If you were to look at the lake, you would see a reflected image of the sun. The lake would also heat up in response to the sun, this would be accounted by the absorbed energy. And a portion of the light would hit the bottom of the lake, but because of the different density of water and air, the light would be bent (or "refracted") at the water's surface.
One could extend this to distribution of knowledge via cooking shows.
If you watch a cooking show, you see some sort of educational information about food. If this knowledge is not transferred to you, it bounces off and is reflected. This could be a dish that you immediately forget, or never plan to make. It could also be information about a restaurant you will never eat at, like diners, drive-ins, and dives. Or $40 dollars a day. Or feasting on asphalt/waves. Actually, a large amount of information is thrown at us every day, and we have to reflect the majority of it to stay sane.
But if one of these traveling shows were to do a special on an area local to you, you may find out about a restaurant close to you that you didn't know about before. In this case, the information is absorbed, and you can use it. The same can be said for a particular recipe that you learn, or a technique that you haven't seen before. This is part of the reason why I watch cooking shows, to be exposed to food and things that are on the border of my expertise. By exposure to them, I can incorporate them into my repertoire and become a better cook.
I find that the most profitable form of knowledge is the kind that I can refract- that is, see it for what it is and then make it my own. A show like Good Eats caters to this - while recipes are given, they are designed to illustrate the principles behind the food, and the viewer can walk away with more than just a recipe, they have a tool which they can use to put their own unique signature on something new. Julia Child and Jaques Pepin are masters of technique, and I enjoy watching them work more than the food that they create.
Within these categories, I have progressed from types of food shows that I find least useful to ones that I do. I've watched a lot of Food Network in my day, and without at doubt Good Eats is my favorite by far. I like it because it exemplifies what a cooking show should be - someone with an obvious obsession for food sharing lessons they have learned which you can use.
My problem with recipe-heavy shows is the restrictiveness that they impose. A recipe is like a picture- it is the result of a specific set of circumstances, and takes a scientific precision to reproduce exactly. While recipes have their place as a record of what was, they do not necessitate what must be. As a cook, I've learned what I can change and what I can't. One of my earliest and most memorable failures was omitting cornstarch from a lemon meringue pie, yielding a very appetizing meringue covering a lemon soup. Sometimes recipes have their place.
I'm getting off the soap box. I'm turning off Food Network.
To recap: when energy from the sun hits a a lake, it has three paths: reflect, absorb, and refract. If you were to look at the lake, you would see a reflected image of the sun. The lake would also heat up in response to the sun, this would be accounted by the absorbed energy. And a portion of the light would hit the bottom of the lake, but because of the different density of water and air, the light would be bent (or "refracted") at the water's surface.
One could extend this to distribution of knowledge via cooking shows.
If you watch a cooking show, you see some sort of educational information about food. If this knowledge is not transferred to you, it bounces off and is reflected. This could be a dish that you immediately forget, or never plan to make. It could also be information about a restaurant you will never eat at, like diners, drive-ins, and dives. Or $40 dollars a day. Or feasting on asphalt/waves. Actually, a large amount of information is thrown at us every day, and we have to reflect the majority of it to stay sane.
But if one of these traveling shows were to do a special on an area local to you, you may find out about a restaurant close to you that you didn't know about before. In this case, the information is absorbed, and you can use it. The same can be said for a particular recipe that you learn, or a technique that you haven't seen before. This is part of the reason why I watch cooking shows, to be exposed to food and things that are on the border of my expertise. By exposure to them, I can incorporate them into my repertoire and become a better cook.
I find that the most profitable form of knowledge is the kind that I can refract- that is, see it for what it is and then make it my own. A show like Good Eats caters to this - while recipes are given, they are designed to illustrate the principles behind the food, and the viewer can walk away with more than just a recipe, they have a tool which they can use to put their own unique signature on something new. Julia Child and Jaques Pepin are masters of technique, and I enjoy watching them work more than the food that they create.
Within these categories, I have progressed from types of food shows that I find least useful to ones that I do. I've watched a lot of Food Network in my day, and without at doubt Good Eats is my favorite by far. I like it because it exemplifies what a cooking show should be - someone with an obvious obsession for food sharing lessons they have learned which you can use.
My problem with recipe-heavy shows is the restrictiveness that they impose. A recipe is like a picture- it is the result of a specific set of circumstances, and takes a scientific precision to reproduce exactly. While recipes have their place as a record of what was, they do not necessitate what must be. As a cook, I've learned what I can change and what I can't. One of my earliest and most memorable failures was omitting cornstarch from a lemon meringue pie, yielding a very appetizing meringue covering a lemon soup. Sometimes recipes have their place.
I'm getting off the soap box. I'm turning off Food Network.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)