So, like, I went to Baltimore a couple of, like, weeks ago, and my girlfriend and I totally watched a Christmas concert with Valerie in it. Totally groovy. And, like, after the concert, and she, like, sang and all, I saw her cigar box handbag thing, and I was like, “I totally have to get a picture of me with that, it’ll be this weird, like, synchronicity among bloggers and stuff, y’know?” And I thought it was totally, like, the most fashionable thing ever.
Worry
Seagull
An inquisitive seagull approaches the food court window at Harborplace Mall, Baltimore.
Photo taken with a Palm Zire 71.
Her Tiger
In Stitches
The autumn leaves were getting out of date, so I changed the header graphic for my general inside pages. That should be good for the rest of the season, while I make exciting new changes in the background.
The photo, previously seen here, is a panorama stitched together from five different photos. If you lack a wide-angle lens but want to try making grafted panoramic shots like this, check these stitching tips and About.com’s panorama page, and take a look at the Max Lyons Gallery. (Of gigapixel fame.)
Milkshake?
I like “What A Crappy Present” not so much for its witty exposition of record industry abuse as for the absolutely precious expression on the little girl’s face. Aaww!!
(I forgot to point out that there is a spot of profanity on the site, so you may not want your little ones to see it and be negatively influenced by these rebellious whippersnappers.)
“THIS is Ceti Alpha 5!”
Update: Please see Ceti Alpha V for the title reference.
(Geez, you PVP readers, I thought you knew your sci-fi pop culture references. It’s not even that obscure.)
Update, 2007: Sadly, the joke alert is no longer there. It was great. NOAA posted a test alert saying that the Earth was careening out of its orbit towards the sun, but then erased it, and mr_crash_davis posted a screenshot, but now it’s gone, and the reference to Ceti Alpha 5 is just completely pointless now. Forget it.
A good thing that mr_crash_davis managed to grab a screenshot of the NOAA weather statement warning of unusually hot weather due to the planet Earth’s unseasonable catastrophic orbital displacement. Just so you know how doomed we all are.
(Note on the thread title: it’s a quote from Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, where Chekov still thinks he’s on Ceti Alpha 6, not 5, where Khan was marooned. Khan tells him, “This is Ceti Alpha 5! Ceti Alpha 6 exploded six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of the planet and everything was laid waste.” Hence the reference to the fictional orbital displacement mentioned above.)
SPac Invaders
Note to Slate: When your subhead mentions “Space Invaders,” it would be nice to make your graphic a Space Invaders screenshot, wouldn’t it?
Cooking ng Ina Mo
About to try cooking Myra’s Chicken Adobo. Wish me luck.
Update: Except for the fact that I had no potatoes or boiled eggs, had to use garlic powder instead of real garlic, and onion powder instead of onions, the adobo cooked surprisingly well. I did not follow the above recipe exactly, since I was going for the stew-like adobo rather than the skillet-fried variety. My mix calls for a bit more soy sauce, lots more bay leaves and garlic [powder], a bit of sugar, and a much longer simmer to let it all work through the meat. The final output tastes a lot like how my mom makes it. Which is a good thing.
I failed to consider the lack of kitchen exhaust in my apartment, so my whole living space is deliciously saturated with the smell of garlicky adobo, even after having a window open to the sub-freezing air all night. Delightful.
Coveting Couches
Valerie wants to marry a clothes dryer, and other thoughts on covetousness and marriage. Go read. It’s her kind of thinking (the clothes-dryer thinking, not the couch thinking) that saves a man from ogling other women after he’s gotten married.