Tortura
Posted on | July 2, 2008 at 11:02 pm | 5 Comments
They still have not determined the cause of the recent salmonella outbreak that was initially blamed on tomatoes. But I know the cause. See if you can guess what from this quote from this article: Other food-safety experts, including Doug Powell at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., have wondered whether jalapeños, green onions, cilantro or white onions might be implicated. What was that second-to-the-last one again? Oh yeah… that’s right… cilantro. You all know how I feel about the demon herb. There is absolutely no doubt in mind it’s the culprit. I only hope that this incident causes it to be wiped off the face of the earth for good. That way it can never sneak into my food again.
Although maybe the tainted food is actually celery?? That would be cool too.
Thankfully, Taco Bell doesn’t use cilantro. I think. But they are into taunting me. In today’s paper, there was another coupon for a Spicy CrunchWrap Supreme for $2.89. Aaargghhh! This is driving me frakkin’ crazy! I want to drive down to my local TB right now and present that coupon and see what they do. But I have to go to bed. Plus, only the drive-thru is open at this time of night, and that wouldn’t quite work. I need to wave it in someone’s face.
Why must they torment me so??
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 63°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “OK Apartment” (The Oranges Band)
- “Unwashed Uncool” (Butterfly Child)
- “The Man With the Blurry Face” (Firewater)
- “Don’t Make Me a Target” (Spoon)
- “Day One, Amanda Year” (Baskervilles)
- “My Life In Reverse” (Maxïmo Park)
Pet Peeve of the Day: The new 2.40 system update firmware for the PlayStation 3, which introduces the in-game cross-media bar and a new “trophy” achievement system at last, is apparently causing some people’s PS3s to stop working. The problem is widespread enough that Sony has pulled the update. Of course, I downloaded the update this morning as soon as it was available. I haven’t had any problems, but I only briefly tested it out this morning by playing a little Portal. Apparently there are no reports of problems after a successful install, so I guess I’m okay. I don’t want no $500 brick.
The Top Three Monster-Related Search Terms Of The Day That Led To This Blog:
Coffee Tomato Supremes
Posted on | July 1, 2008 at 10:45 pm | 4 Comments
In the news, there is proof that we’ve finally reached the Starbucks Saturation Point: Starbucks to cut up to 12,000 jobs, close 600 stores. I don’t patronize Starbucks, or any coffee house for that matter, because I’m just not that into coffee. Or at least not into paying a lot for coffee. However, I am kind of mad at them ever since a Starbucks outlet appeared inside my local Safeway after they remodeled it. Pet Peeve of the Day: Ever since the remodel, the store doesn’t stock a lot of items that it used to, since it doesn’t have as much space. I blame it on the Starbucks. Does anyone really need coffee while they’re grocery shopping? I can’t imagine many people stop there on the way to work to pick up some coffee, since there are far easier Starbucks outlets in the area to navigate. So here’s hoping that’s one of the stores they close, and that my Safeway can start stocking unpopular toothpaste and light bulbs again.
This reminds me of my all-time favorite Onion article: Starbucks To Begin Sinister ‘Phase Two’ Of Operation.
And speaking of grocery stores, just when did “grape tomatoes” come into being? And how are they different from “cherry tomatoes”? What’s next, “pineapple tomatoes”? “Watermelon tomatoes”? Why can’t tomatoes just be tomatoes? Why do they have to keep crossing them with other fruits?
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 66°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Crosswires” (XTC)
- “Ten Feet Tall” (XTC)
- “Kill Yr Idols” (Sonic Youth)
- “Crosseyed” (Brendan Benson)
- “Under the Sun” (Buzzcocks)
- “I Took Only What I Needed” (Richard Barone)
- “Blame It On Me” (Barenaked Ladies)
I believe this is the first time in the history of the Fast Tempo jogging playlist that the same artist has had back-to-back songs (though Charlotte Hatherley came really close the other week).
Cool Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “godzilla destroying the sydney opera house picture”.
Prolific Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “difference in crunchwrap supreme and queso crunchwrap” (and many variations thereof). Something has finally knocked the “spanking” phrases off the top of the search terms list. I never dreamed so many people would be looking for information on CrunchWrap Supremes. It’s really elevated my hit stats this last week. I just wish a few of those visitors to my blog had bothered to let me know how much the item costs in their area.
Blogging?? I LOVE Blogging!
Posted on | June 30, 2008 at 8:42 pm | 1 Comment
Pet Peeve of the Day: By now, I’m sure everyone’s seen the “Chewing It Over” commercials for Twix candy bars, which feature guys in potentially embarrassing situations who take a moment to munch on candy before deciding what to say, thereby saving themselves. They’re like the old Mentos ads, except… y’know… coherent. The one that I keep seeing goes something like this:
Girl at party to guy at party: “All politicians are evil!”
Guy: “You said it!”
Girl: “Finally, someone who shares my struggle!”
Guy: “Right! Do you wanna go to my apartment?”
Girl (incredulously): “What kind of girl do you think I am?”
Guy munches on Twix bar and thinks it over, then dejectedly says: “I thought you were a believer, someone would who would want to blog about our ideals.”
Girl (happily): “Oh, blogging! I love blogging!”
Guy then leads girl out of apartment.
(You can watch this whole sorry scene on twix.com, as part of an interactive “choose your own adventure” Get The Girl game that then extends the scene out to it’s ultimate outcome. And becomes even more offensive.)
As I’m sure numerous bloggers have already pointed out:
1) Blogging is not the way to get girls. In fact, it’s something of a detriment.
2) Blogging is not a group activity, unless you’re Boing Boing or io9 or Wonkette or something like that, where a staff of writers contribute different posts.
As per the usual, it’s like the ad writers are latching on to some popular term or fad without really understanding it. Although who knows – maybe this gal does like going over to the apartments of strange men and composing blog entries with them throughout the night. “Change that sentence there. That should be its, not it’s.” Even though blogging really is a solitary activity perpetrated by lonely, degenerate freaks huddled up next to their computer screens for warmth, maybe “chain blogs” will catch on. You could have blog parties where each guest writes one sentence of a blog entry which must be loosely connected to the last sentence written by the previous guest. Alcohol is a must, and the blog entry isn’t considered publishable until someone writes “And then the Warlord swung in and killed everyone”. (Sorry, that’s an in-joke that only a few of my readers will get.) So, let’s get that trend started – everyone go out there, find someone off the street, and compose a blog entry with them. Bonus points if the two of you have differing political views or if the blogging session leads to sex.
Latre.
Bruce In Unreal Life
Posted on | June 29, 2008 at 6:27 pm | 1 Comment
It’s Movie Review Sunday! I saw two movies yesterday, one in the theater and one on DVD.
The theater movie was The Incredible Hulk. Based on how many people were in the theater (8 including myself), I don’t think it’s going to be in the theaters for much longer. Although Saturday morning shows are never very crowded anyway. I’m not one of those people who totally villified Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk – it did have its moments (including Jennifer Connelly). But I have to admit this newer incarnation is vastly improved. Edward Norton makes a much better Bruce Banner than Eric Bana did. He’s an outstanding actor and he always has that inner intensity waiting to just burst out, no matter what role he plays. So that makes for a perfect Hulk. Liv Tyler didn’t do all that much for me as Betty Ross, but the part was somewhat underwritten anyway. (I’m probably risking getting some flack for this, but Ms Tyler looked a bit… chunky in the movie. She’s still a very beautiful woman and there’s nothing wrong with her, she just looked different from what I remember. Was the movie made before or after a pregnancy? Or maybe it was just the way they had her dressed.) The climatic fight was a lot more entertaining than the one in the first movie, even though it was just two big CGI monsters duking it out. The Hulk’s face had some real personality to it with some playful boyishness. Love those bangs!
Pet Peeve of the Day: I notice that Marvel is trying to pull in fans of the Iron Man movie by playing up the Robert Downey Jr appearance in TV spots for The Incredible Hulk. That’s pretty low, since the scene is at the very end and is maybe a minute long. It is a nice scene though, and great nod to what Marvel is trying to do with its movies now and an interesting glimpse of the future.
The rented movie I saw was Dan In Real Life. N and I both thought this one was just okay. Steve Carell is excellent, as he almost always is, and it’s cool seeing him handle a part with grace that’s as much drama as comedy. Juliette Binoche is ravishing and vivacious, but I think I liked her more than the girlfriend did, who thought her character was actually kind of annoying. But we both had one big problem with the movie. Dane Cook was not annoying as he usually is. No, that’s not it. Oh yeah:
The movie takes place over a period of a couple of days, as Steve’s character Dan and his three daughters trek up to the Rhode Island shore (to the world’s most perfect all-wood house) for some kind of winter vacation with Dan’s perfect extended family (parents, siblings, spouses of siblings, nieces and nephews). The Burns family is one that could only exist in a movie. Everybody in the family likes everyone else. They all play games together, endlessly. They do dance aerobics outside first thing in the morning. They even have a freakin’ talent show in the living room, where everyone is expected to perform. Gramma and Grampa (Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney) are full of good humor and good advice, and are apparently in fantastic health for their age. In fact, everyone seems to be in great health and great spirits, except for Dan who is a widower in love with this brother’s new girlfriend. This is the most “together” large family I’ve ever seen in a movie. If they all didn’t drink so much alcohol, I would’ve thought they were Mormons. It was just a little too much sweetness to swallow. That one bit of conflict introduced into the family didn’t really seem to faze anyone all that much, and the family bonds are as strong at the end of the movie as they were at the beginning. I swear, sometimes it seemed as much of a fantasy as August Rush. Maybe it was some sort of wish fulfillment on the part of the screenwriter, who probably had a crappy childhood. I kept waiting for the Hulk to burst in and smash that happy home into wood pulp.
But other than that, the movie was entertaining.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “what is beeping in my kitchen”.
A Bygone Era Lives
Posted on | June 28, 2008 at 10:15 am | 6 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: This week, I got a huge 900-page JC Penney catalog in the mail:
In this day and age, why do they even make and send out these things?? It’s much easier to shop on the Internet and not deal with these tree-eating monsters. The thing is just going right into my recycle bin. It took up most of the space in my mail slot and smooshed the packaging of my NetFlix DVD and my other mail.
I’m not even sure why they sent it. I assume they got the address when I ordered something online for my father to give to his girlfriend for her birthday. But isn’t ordering online a good tipoff that a catalog isn’t needed? Or maybe they got the name/address from the store purchases I’ve made for him (again, gifts for his gf). I don’t know. Either way, it just seems silly.
I also occasionally get a big Cabela’s catalog in the mail, though it’s not quite as huge. I think I’m on their list because of some gift items I’ve ordered online.
Relics of a distant age… does anyone actually look at print catalogs anymore? I guess I can understand it if you don’t have an outlet nearby – N does insist I save the LL Bean catalogs for her. Maybe it is a little easier to browse than the website. But now that Sharper Image is (more or less) dead, there are no catalogs I want to see! (Note: Kidding about liking Sharper Image catalogs – though I did used to dig them.)
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 60°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “What’s It All About” (Bill Nelson)
- “I Sell Love” (Mink Lungs)
- “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” (The Clash)
- “Missing The Boat” (Random Hold)
- “Step” (Palindromes)
- “If It Kills Me” (Therapy?)
- “Lost Outside The Tunnel” (Aztec Camera)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “fruitista freeze racist”. (There ya go, 2fs.)
Longcut
Posted on | June 27, 2008 at 10:06 pm | Comments Off
I’ve been waiting for this for almost twenty years.
Yesterday, they finally opened up the new C-470/Alameda interchange, which makes it a lot faster/easier for me to get onto the highway closest to my home. This interchange has been rumored practically ever since I moved in, 18 years ago. I had begun to give up hope. Then, late last year or early this year, I started seeing articles in the paper and such that made it look like it was going to be reality. Then they actually began construction a few months ago. And now it’s done! Or at least open for traffic… they still have a little work to do.
Even though residents in the area have been clamoring for this for years, I think it was the imminent occupation of the Solterra development (which I blogged about here) that finally spurred TPTB into production. I’ll bet Carma and company pressed whoever they needed in order to make it easier for people to access their new faux “classic European hilltown community”. Also, the 2008 Denver Parade of Homes, which starts at the end of July, is being hosted there, so I think it’s more than a little coincidental that the interchange got constructed right before that.
But I’m not complaining. The new interchange fixes a serious design flaw of C-470, namely that the first exit when you get on the highway from I-70 is Morrison Rd, a whopping four miles down. Alameda is barely one mile down. I hated driving down C-470 and looking at the hills over to the left, realizing my house was not too far behind them, yet knowing that I had to go all the way down to Morrison Rd and around that whole area in order to get home. All told, the new exit probably only shaves about 2.5 – 3 miles off the route to I-70/6th Ave, but every little bit helps.
I’ve even checked it out to see if using the highways to get to/from 6th Avenue shortens my work commute. I took that route on the way home yesterday and on the way to work today, during curiously un-busy rush hours. Even though it’s taking the long way around to get downtown (essentially going west for awhile when my ultimate destination is east) and adding around 3-4 miles to the commute, it still takes about the same amount of time as when I take one of the heavily stoplighted main drags (like Union or Kipling) to get to 6th Avenue. And the highway driving is a lot less stressful for me.
Still, those extra miles bother me in this high gas price/climate change era we find ourselves in. So I’m not sure yet how often I’m going to use this route. It’s pretty likely I’ll use it on the commute home if I drive during rush hour, because those southbound stoplighted streets really back up every weekday afternoon. Going that way, it usually takes me nearly twice as long for the evening commute than it does for the morning one. So the prospect of shaving some 15 minutes or so off my evening commute is a juicy one. Maybe I’ll stick to the stop-and-go roads for the morning ride and save myself a little gas. (The Prius don’t pollute much when idling.)
I liked that they took the environmental concerns into account when building the interchange and that they’re going to pains to preserve and even enhance the C-470 bike trail. But mostly I just like the fact that I have more options now. It opens up a whole new world for me. Even going to the local megaplex movie theater will now be faster, so I’ll miss fewer pre-flick commercials. Although who knows what’s going to happen once people start moving into the new development and the retail space starts getting filled and all that. The increase in traffic may negate the benefits of the new exchange. But at least I’ll be able to enjoy it for a little while.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 61°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Anti-Anti” (Snowden)
- “Planets” (Teenage Fanclub)
- “Here It Is Tomorrow” (Game Theory)
- “Love 1″ (Guided By Voices)
- “The Conversation” (Twilight Singers)
- “TV” (Headlights)
- “Perfect Day” (Duran Duran)
- “De Chirico Street” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” (Talking Heads)
Cool E-mail Received Today: “This is a reminder that nobody is allowed in the break room after Jesus starts waxing the floor.”