Category Archives: Uncategorized

Shishito


Nikon D90, 28-105mm

I'm growing shishito peppers this year, in planters on our front porch.

We first had these last spring on our trip to Miami Beach, served as appetizers at the hotel bar. And I've been waiting ever since to grow some of these myself.

They're chili peppers. They're smaller and not quite as fleshy as a jalapeno, but they're completely heat-free*: no hotter than a bell pepper. So, you can just eat them, seeds too, one after another. Pluck em off the plant, pierce with a knife, throw into a hot frying pan with a touch of oil, cook for a couple minutes until they're just soft and starting to brown, then sprinkle with kosher salt: instant snack. Their stems make nice handles.

* - in general, sometimes a rogue will surprise you with a bit of heat.

Songs

Anyone up for a Favorite Song poll?

The favorite album thing was fun, but we've done that. A favorite song poll seems like it could play out differently - listening to all of the submitted songs would not be an impossible task, the way it was with albums.

Political Facts

Lessig:

A tiny number of Americans -- .26 percent -- give more than $200 to a congressional campaign. .05 percent give the maximum amount to any congressional candidate. .01 percent give more than $10,000 in any election cycle. And .000063 percent -- 196 Americans -- have given more than 80 percent of the super-PAC money spent in the presidential elections so far.

Sleeves


Nikon D90

Somewhere over 400 empty CD jewel cases; next to them, in the box, are the CDs and accompanying artwork (both insert and back tray card), in individual polyethylene sleeves.

That's A through most of P. There are still a couple hundred CDs left to go (I have lots of S and T bands).

Yes, that box is motherfucking heavy. The box of 1000 empty sleeves I bought probably weighed 15 pounds by itself.

Our local landfill recycles jewel cases (or they claim to, at least). So, next week, or maybe the week after that, I'll throw all the cases into a big bag and haul them away.

The sleeves are soft and quite slippery, but they do OK when stored vertically, (and they're designed so you can read the tray card spines on the edge). When they get to the new house, I think I'm going to build a new rack for them. Or, maybe just shove them in a chest of some kind.

Facebook, Forgery

Why not just let the world's largest social network go ahead and automatically publish posts using your name, and stick those posts on your friends’ Newsfeeds?

No need to answer, on account of Facebook is already providing you with this automated convenience, ZDNet’s Ed Bott reports. Posts from pages you "like," now show up in Newsfeeds, as if you posted them yourself.

For a fake illustration, say at some point I "like" a Flock of Seagulls fan page — you know, just to be ironic and amuse my fellow Gen-Xers on Facebook (you know how we do). Then that Flock of Seagulls page posts a story about a Flock of Seagulls comeback album. That post shows up in the Newsfeeds of my Gen-X Facebook friends, with my name on the top, as if I posted it there myself. That could be really embarrassing — if I cared. (Being a Gen-Xer, I wouldn't, but you get the point.)

If it wasn't the primary way I communicate with a lot of people I'd rather not stop communicating with, I'd ditch this piece of shit right now.

Dissonance

Americans paid the lowest federal tax rate in three decades during President Obama’s first year in office, according to a new government report out this week.

The Congressional Budget Office found that the average tax rate in 2009 was 17.4 percent, the lowest since 1979, and down from 19.9 percent in 2007. Although figures are only available through 2009, the CBO expects to see the historic lows maintained through 2010 and 2011.

(The Washington Post points out the irony: 2009 was the same year anti-tax protesters began their full-throated criticism of White House tax policies.)

The only reasonable solution to this problem is a tax cut.