= Such Stupid Things =

I suppose I brought this on myself with my jerkish weather-related post a few days ago, but things in the East Bay have taken a turn for the worse. Cold rain, while hardly tragic in the grand scheme of things, has been quite a drain on morale... plus I think I'm coming down with a cold.

This lead to a heated debate in my head this morning about whether or not I should make coffee. Would it aid or inhibit the tiny rhinoviruses trying to take hold of my respirtory tract? Assuming that scientists have grappled with this question before, I went straight to the internet. And apparently, I'm happy to say, coffee gets a green light. Here's a somewhat-legitimate-looking press release from the latest issue of Food Technology. But if that isn't convincing enough, just google "common cold coffee". The number of hits in support of treating one with the other far outnumber the ones telling me it's a bad idea. So case closed.

We'll call that that big science conclusion of the week and leave things at that. Experiments be damned.

Posted by Jeff at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thank you for leaving $1.75 in change in the lint trap.

And an extra special thank you for leaving two still-magnetized $13 BART tickets in the dryer.

You made my day.

Posted by Jeff at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seriously, kids. If it wasn't 70 degrees and sunny today, you should really re-think your city of residence.

Posted by Jeff at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was something of a hilarious irony when it was the supposed super-food, spinach that was the festering source of infectious bacteria. But now that it's peanut butter, I've just lost all sympathy for these little buggers. Look at that delicious scoop of peanut butter on the CDC's website... Avoiding a spinach salad is hardly an inconvenience to anyone, but how can you resist something like that? Won't somebody please think of the children?

Posted by Jeff at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been told by reliable sources that the movie I need to see is The Bridge So Far, the hilarious (slash) horrifying documentary about the "wild and troubled history" of the east span of the Bay Bridge.

Does anyone have or have access to a copy of the DVD? Netflicks, maybe?

Posted by Jeff at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marie and I finally made it to Alameda, after years of cajoling from our more in-the-know friends. As promised, you go from industrial Oakland, over a bridge and through a timewarp into a sleepy beachfront-community. Visions of the Malibu chief of police throwing coffee mugs danced through my head.

It was a pretty fun cultural experience. The little main drag was nice. The food was great. The bars were actually enjoyable. Of course, it was "hella raining", and both Hangar One and the USS Hornet were closed by the time we got there, but we all had fun nonetheless.

I'm once again way behind in my picture-posting. I'll get right on that.

Posted by Jeff at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Power Grid is the new board game hottness. We've only played it through a few times now, but I'm hooked. I especially enjoy how the game quickly fosters discussion about our nation's energy policy - all the more pertinent given AJ's recent job offer from Chevron. His employment is a shining beacon of hope for a po' graduate students everywhere.

And speaking of petroleum, this is the probably my favorite news item from the past few weeks: First Iraqi bird guide shows rebirth of marshes. Clearly, it's several days old by this point, but it made me smile so I felt like posting it anyway. I never really understood birding as a hobby, but my dad was pretty into it back in the day. I wonder if any danger-loving Westerners are waiting for their shot to cross some rare, Middle-Eastern waterfowl off ther lifelist. Probably for now, it's best left to our men in uniform.

Posted by Jeff at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As an unexpected Christmas gift, Pat got Marie (and by association, me) a subscription to the New Yorker. I was a little worried. Indeed, its articles are solid, but I've long-enjoyed mocking Ross for starting 75% of his conversations with, "I was just reading in the New Yorker...", and I wasn't about to give that up by becoming a reader myself. (For completeness, Ross's other 25% start with, "So I was at the Bears Lair, when...".)

Well, we're three issues deep as of last week and I'm quite pleased. Maybe I should feel a little guilty, but I figure I bought into the yuppie lifestyle whole-hog the day I moved to north Berkeley and picked up a half-gallon of organic milk. So why not embrace it? And maybe it'll clue me into some hot-button issues to bring up at cocktail parties, rather than my standard, "what's your favorite dimensionless number?" (Mine's Biot.)

ANYhow, the reason I bring it up here, is that I was just reading in the New Yorker about the plight of a natural gas boomtown in Wyoming this afternoon, when I came across this line:

Six or seven years ago, various developments opened Sublette [County] up to a new explosion of mineral extraction. First, a technological advancement in hydraulic fracturing -- or "fracing," pronounced "frakking"--...

So... is this what they're talking about in BSG? "Hydraulic fracturing" could work as a vulgar euphemism for sex, right?

Posted by Jeff at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Remember when I mentioned that I was taking care of Bill's giant plant over winter break? Well, no good deed goes unrewarded. Bill and Lexi picked us up a little present while in Tunisia...

Adorable, no? I put him next to our little palm to make him feel more at home. The story goes something like this: Bill is looking over a table of stuffed animals at a bazaar in Tunis. Many of the toys play music, but that wasn't Bill's style, so he says to the guy in an atrophied, high-school French that he wants a silent version. The vendor holds up the fellow shown above and says, "this one doesn't play music." They haggle for a few moments and Bill makes the purchase. We would later learn that this particular dromedary was, in fact, the same as all the others... it had just had its batteries taken out.

But to be fair, the guy was being honest: I didn't play music. That is, until we loaded it up with three AAs last night. Behold the creepiness...

Ack! Not only does it start ululating quite loudly, but the eyes light up bright red!

Get back, you beastly dervish!

Posted by Jeff at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To the untrained eye, this lovely blue and grey website has been largely unchanged for about two weeks, but trust me, dear readers, it's not so. A few changes have been made, thanks in large part to the comment spam-blasting advice from this guy. So while calmail will ensure that the spam train continues to run, this blog has been operating much more smoothly as of late.

I even came up with clever means to blocking trackback spam! I... uh... deleted the ability to write trackbacks. Maybe not the most sophisticated solution, but it sure does work. Have never received a trackback in a year and a half of operation, I don't think my readers will be too put-out.

Anyhow, I've built up a flurry of blogish ideas which will be appearing the next few days. I hope. Stay tuned.

Posted by Jeff at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)