August 2008 Archives

[hattip] Miz UV

r00lz:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you've eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (gaaah! reconstituted canine guts!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (plum wine)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (ITA w/UV: gak)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (hhhhhaaaowww!)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (prolly not cuz watery yogurt sounds icky)
34. Sauerkraut (ew! ew ew ew ew EW!)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (but I hates cigars, so ...)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (bugs flying into your mouth don't count)
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (my fave sushi)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (but it was icky, so I won't do it again)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (pickled sour plum -- is good!)
53. Abalone ('nother icky one)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal (But after the Teeny Beanie craze a number of years ago, never again. Mickey D's truly makes me feel ill)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (not a fan of beer anyway)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (only little kids eat dirt)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs (way greasy, though)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (I'd try it at least once)
69. Fried plantain (nom!)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiun
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail (yik!)
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (assuming rabbit counts)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (great salad toppers!)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (yucky)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (sans rattles)

When it comes to misplaced apostrophes, Don't get me Started. I'll go on a major crankfest, repeating myself over and over -- not to mention endlessly -- about how irritating one of Those might be. It's not that the people who misuse apostrophes are total idiot's, mind. They're just half ... no. I said I shouldn't get going on apostrophes and I shan't.

Instead, let me focus on Capitals. Seemingly random use of Capital Letters that are, apparently, intended to impart Importance. We must all Pay Attention to words that should not be capitalized, and yet are.

Highly educated people are doing this. Witness this bit of commentary gleaned from a discussion forum among well educated, professionals:

Despite Apples Woes, they are probably going to sell 40 million 3G iPhones. [...] Good call [and] Data performance sells a phone, but sometimes the Experience of a product will make people forgive it's shortcomings.

This seems to be an attempt to write conversationally -- as one might speak. The author would've placed special emphasis on "Woes" and "Data" and "Experience" if he were actually saying this aloud. He may even have hiccuped slightly sybillating the "s" sound on "its." Or not.

What's even wOrSe aRe ThE RaNDom CaPItaLizAtiOnS done just to be differently k00l. Makes me want to whap someone and yell, "rEsISt tHe UrGe, d00ds!"

My belief is that we ought to eschew capital letters altogether. i mean, it's too much effort to strain for that shift key and why place importance on things like people's names or the starts of sentences? we're all equal here, right?

Well. Except for me. I'm more equal than you.

And way kEwLr. l8r.

I was told -- somewhat surlily (is that a word?) -- that people can't comment on my blog. I checked by, well, trying to comment. Sure 'nuf, leaving a comment directs you to a "Movable Type An Error Occurred" screen. No explanation. No apology. Nothing.

In fact, the comment does get through -- where it may end up being scrubbed as spam.

The really really bad news here is that actual real spam manages to get posted with no issues. Legit comments sometimes get through, sometimes go to my spam bucket.

I did nothing to the blog 'ware, this time. I did not install any new plug-ins, nor upgrade to the new version. I was just sitting here, waiting for comments.

<sigh>

I'm looking for a cause and for a solution. Sorry 'bout this. Feel free to e-mail me at lizarddreams -at- gmail if you have an overwhelming urge to say something. If you do comment, it should show up somewhere and I'll make a point of checking the spam folder BEFORE it gets scrubbed by the system, just in case.

Thanks, Dick.

I should be saving the planet, or at least my company's bottom line by creative application of awesome spreadsheet wizardry, but instead of applying my formidable brain power to resolving the issues of the day, I'm spending my time looking at stuff like this:

Between Totally Looks Like and Cats That Look Like Hitler, I'm not sure my company will ever see a productive me again.

In a recent conversation with a dear friend concerning the values of crusaders, I made an observation. Rare for me, yes, but we all get to have them some time or another. It was a conversation concerning the relative importance of various crusades -- like the numbwit who keeps turning me in for "code" violations because, f'rex, there are some dead palm fronds hanging from a tree in my yard. People who sweat the petty stuff. How blessed their lives must be if they can devote themselves to something relatively small in a world full of bad things.

I pondered, and opined:

Sometimes it is because they haven't really encountered the tough, horrid situations that occur with humanity and so focus their narrow attentions on what they DO see, and for which they have passion. Sometimes, though, it may be because they feel they have the tools to do something about this relatively small but wretched situation, and are nearly powerless regarding the more dire situations.

I can say that, though, because I can actually relate. No, not with the numbwit -- dead palm fronds are so not an issue for me.

I have large issues in my life that I cannot resolve. I just don't have the tools. Personal issues aside, I am also cognizant of world issues that I likewise cannot solve. I can squeak in frustration, but, really, I'm just a wee mousie in a trap that, should I contemplate it, would fill me with despair.

So, I rail against the things I can do something about.

Such as the total moron in the grocery store today, whom I shall name "Dorkbutt."

Dorkbutt is one of those extraordinarily annoying brainless idiots who just sort of wanders about with no clue concerning his immediate environment or the dangers therein. So it was that on three separate occasions I nearly rammed him with my shopping cart -- accidentally, although incident #3 was sorely tempting and it took all my moral strength to NOT just shove the thing into him. What makes this issue particularly grating, though, is that he is teaching his child, whom I shall name "Dingbat", that same reckless disregard. When Dingbat whipped around from the gumball machine she'd been licking to see Daddy Dorkbutt had already meandered out of the store, she charged at top speed in front of my heavily laden cart and raced out into the parking lot, directly in front of a car that was heading for a parking spot.

I screamed "YOU FUCKWIT WATCH YOUR CHILD!" at Dorkbutt, while the driver of the car slammed on her brakes and smacked her horn and Dingbat skipped merrily over to Daddy, who was just turning and gazing in a "huh" stupefaction at all the activity.

I tried to get his name and personal info so I could report him to the guys who go about lobbing off weenies. I don't think this moron should be permitted to create any other children.