This is not my blog

Roman Holiday

2008-03-20T22:17:00.001-07:00

Roman Holiday

2008-03-20T20:26:00.001-07:00

Airlift Northwest

2008-03-19T22:41:00.001-07:00

Airlift Northwest.

Airlift Northwest helicopter landing on the Harborview helipad, as
seen in the side mirror of the ambulance.

Dessert in Hong Kong

2008-03-19T22:40:00.001-07:00

Dessert in Hong Kong.

This was a cute (and tasty) dessert that Justin and I had in Hong
Kong a couple of years ago.

Airlift Northwest

2008-03-18T21:13:00.001-07:00

Riding the Ferry

2008-03-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

Riding the Ferry.

They just barely managed to get us on the boat!

The Magnetic Fields

2008-03-06T23:10:00.001-08:00

The Magnetic Fields.

The Magnetic Fields at Town Hall in Seattle.

Pork neck ramen

2008-02-23T10:54:00.001-08:00

Pork neck ramen.

Delicious braised pork neck ramen with a poached egg from Momofuku.

Snowbuddha

2008-02-22T14:28:00.001-08:00

Snowbuddha.

MaryClaire and I made a snowbuddha in Central Park today. He's cute!

California

2008-02-07T23:14:00.001-08:00

California.

The weather down here in California is much nicer than the recent fare
in Seattle.

Tasty subs

2008-01-26T12:36:00.001-08:00

Tasty subs.

Meatball sub and free range chicken parm sub from Zagi's. Yum!

Happy New Year?

2008-01-24T17:19:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year?.

Yay 2008!

The mountains look pretty

2008-01-21T14:15:00.001-08:00

The mountains look pretty.

It's a lovely clear, crisp, cold day here. The view to the Cascades is
pretty stunning.

At work

2008-01-21T11:25:00.001-08:00

At work.

Today I learned how curbs are made and repaired. Very exciting.

This is a test

2008-01-16T15:43:00.001-08:00

This is a test.

Woohoo! Looks like I can post photos from my iPhone!

Send me a valentine!

2007-02-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Get your own valentinr

Scotch Tasting

2007-01-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

I held a ketchup and scotch tasting deep fry party yesterday. It was a lot of fun - items deep-fried included shrimp, bacon-wrapped shrimp, avocado, zucchini, halibut, potatoes, cheese curds (SO GOOD!), Mars bars, Twix, oreos, Tofutti Cuties, cookie dough (bad idea), Petit Ecolier, and probably some other things I've forgotten.

For the scotch tasting, we tried 8 very different scotches. The results are posted here. Enjoy!

MLK Day

2007-01-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

An appropriate cartoon.

Wedding Dance to German Metal

2006-12-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Adorable? Or disturbing?

2006-08-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Part 1:

Part 2:

YES!!!!

2006-07-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

I repeat: YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

The big day...

2006-07-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

In a few hours France will play Brazil here in Frankfurt. Justin and I are among the lucky few who have tickets to this match - apparently they're going for €1200 on ebay. Yowza.

To be honest, I'm not too optimistic about France's prospects but I've got all my gear on and I'm ready to sing and chant and dance until the final whistle.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!

Berlin!

2006-06-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Another disappointing game by France in Leipzig but at least we splurged on a nice hotel. Oh, and South Koreans don't know how to do the wave but they were certainly making a lot of noise - the atmosphere was once again fantastic.

We're in Berlin now - we've got 3 nights booked here so we can feel a bit less pressured to run around like crazy. And our laundry is now done so it's time for me to go.

In short: This trip is still awesome.

Exciting day...

2006-06-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Quite the day in World Cup football... first Ghana beats the Czech Republic and then the US v Italy match sees three red cards and a 1-1 draw. Sheesh, I can't take this kind of emotional rollercoaster. :)

Deutschland!

2006-06-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Having arrived in Stuttgart on Monday morning, Justin and I are in Munich now - we took the train down here today. Also, I´m typing on a German keyboard and it´s weird.

The game yesterday (France v Switzerland) was a lot of fun - the game itself was disappointing, a rather dour nil-nil draw, but the atmostphere was fantastic... some 52000 people singing and chanting and cheering their team on. We spent the day wandering around the city in our France jerseys being taunted by the Swiss, who vastly outnumbered us. We found some enclaves of French, though, and sang along with them when we could figure out what to say... after the game, we went to the Fan Fest (massive viewing screens in the main square) and were amazed at the crowd there for the (also disappointing) Brazil v Crotia game.

Anyway, it was all a lot of fun, I´m still exhausted from not sleeping well, and tonight is Germany vs Poland so that should be a lot of fun.

Tchuss!

2006-05-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Heh-heh-heh...

2006-04-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

By this time tomorrow I will be done with the MCAT (hopefully forever). Eep! and yay!

My practice tests have gone reasonably well so hopefully they'll be a good indicator for the actual test. I can't wait for this part to be done.

How about quiz results?

2006-04-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Very Well-Rounded

You have:
62% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
70% EMOTIONAL INTUITION

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition. (Weirdly, your emotional and scientific intuitions are equally strong.)

Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 30% on Scientific
You scored higher than 61% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test.

Whee that was fun.

Food item!

2006-03-31T17:11:00.000-08:00

Today's exciting discovery: the QFC at Broadway & Pike on Capitol Hill has prosciutto for $5.99 a pound! That's OMG cheap.

2006-03-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting development in the SD abortion ban issue.

The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

UPDATE: Response from Planned Parenthood.

BF2K6

2006-02-24T01:19:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Kate and I hosted Bacon Fest 2K6, a festival of bacon-tasting goodness. The focal point of the afternoon was a blind taste-test of 8 different bacons (6 "stripy" bacons and two "canadian" bacons). The participants then ranked each of the bacons in three different categories on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest). The categories were "overall", "flavour" and "consistency". Each participant was also asked to choose a favourite and a least favourite of the 6 regular bacons. Finally, everyone tried to guess which bacon was the "supermarket brand" bacon.

The bacons used were:

The canadian bacons were:

The bacons were prepared in the microwave for the greatest ease and speed of cooking. This may have had an impact on the overall scores since the bacons turn out somewhat differently than they do when fried.

After everyone rated the bacons, the final scores were tallied. The results are gathered here.

Summing up the results, the mean scores in the overall category, from high to low, were:

1. Niman Ranch  - 4.0
2. Wellshire    - 3.4
3. Trader Joe's - 3.0
4. Oscar Meyer  - 2.9
5. Golden Farms - 2.8
6. Hempler's    - 2.7
7. Applegate    - 2.6
8. Hormel       - 2.4

A weighted general score was also calculated by averaging all the mean scores and weighting the overall score double. Those results were:

1. Niman Ranch  - 4.1
2. Wellshire    - 3.4
3. Trader Joe's - 3.0
4. Oscar Meyer  - 2.9
5. Hempler's    - 2.8
6. Golden Farms - 2.8
7. Applegate    - 2.4
8. Hormel       - 2.4

It's also worth noting that Niman Ranch received the most "favourite" votes, with 5 of the 9 participants choosing it.

Here are the comments that different participants made about the bacons:

Niman Ranch:
"Seems really fattening, but that's good for bacon"
"Nice and tough"
"Nice smokiness, salty"
"Rich, complex, superb mouth-feel"
"Flavors die of quick, not much real flavor"
"Chewy. Flavor very light, smoked salmon. Strong chemical undertone."

Applegate:
"Too thin, but great flavor"
"Boring"
"Flat flavor, no smokiness, chewy"
"Yuck! Insufficiently salty, too chewy"
"Flavor was weak, salty stays"
"Thin, crispyish. V. nice flavor"

Wellshire:
"Very salty, but delicious"
"Nice sensation"
"Nice balanced flavor, nicely salty"
"Overly crispy; tough; flavorless"
"Smoky, less salt; not cloying"
"Crispy but a little flavorless"

Hempler's:
"Too fatty, not enough flavor"
"Almost fishy"
"Cardboardy, shallow flavor, gummy"
"A bit sour, a little gamey. Notes of duck"
"Flavor not good; weak, not bacony. Could be eating any type of meat"
"Almost smoked-salmon flavored"
"Nice & thick, strong rich flavor"

Oscar Meyer:
"Doesn't seem very flavorful"
"Eggy flavor"
"Porky, not smoky"
"Full flavor up front, fishy aftertaste"
"Weak, not much flavor"
"Strong late smoke flavor, not much bacon flavor. Chewy but not resiliant"

Trader Joe's:
"Okay. Nothing special"
"Tough"
"Greasy. Good smoke"
"Nice smokiness, not salty"
"Smokey, with tobacco notes"
"Too tough, no bacony flavor"
"Little heavy on the smoke flavor but with good meat flavor underneath. Bit mealy in the chewiness"

Golden Farms:
"Good flavor - but not enough fat!"
"Light flavor"
"Tasted dirty"
"Nicely smoky, balanced salty"
"Dry, flavorless"
"Maply"
"Good flavor, though the texture was somewhat dry and leathery"

Hormel:
"Icky"
"Like ham"
"Too dry"
"Eggy, dry, spongy"
"Tasty, but ham-like. Nice saltiness."
"More like ham"
"Mealy and only pork flavored"

The bacon-tasting was followed by full-on bacon consumption, with the remainder of all the bacons (except the Canadian ones) being devoured. Bacon butties and BLTs were the order of the day. All in all, about 6-8 pounds of bacon were consumed. A few folks took photos so hopefully I'll be able to ~~steal~~ share those soon.

Bacon Fest 2K6

2006-02-20T01:48:00.000-08:00

Bacon Fest 2K6 occured today and was a grand success. The official results are now available online. Pictures and write-up to follow!

Johari/Nohari

2006-02-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

It's meme time! Click the following links and choose words that you think describe my good and bad traits...

Four things meme

2006-02-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a little meme from Kate.

"My four things"
by Colin

Four jobs I've had:
Trainer (corporate not physical)
Bartender
Pallet repairs
A/V tech

Four movies I could watch over and over:
Hmm, this is tricky. How about -
Fever Pitch (the original)
A Clockwork Orange
The Big Lebowski
Return of the Pink Panther

Four places I've lived:
Geneva, Switzerland
Ayr, Scotland
Somerville, MA
Portland, OR

Four TV shows I love:
The Daily Show
The Simpsons
The Office (UK)
Futurama

Four highly regarded shows I've never watched:
24
Lost
Desperate Housewives
Gray's Anatomy

Four places I've vacationed:
Peru
Thailand
Italy
Tunisia

Four of my favourite dishes:
Swimming Rama
Really good filet mignon, medium rare
Scottish fish & chips (w/ salt & sauce)
Spaghetti with fresh pesto sauce

Four sites I visit daily:
Livejournal
BoingBoing
Bl og sp ot
Pharyngula

Four places I'd rather be right now:
Koh Phangan
Edinburgh
Boston
An Arsenal game (when they're winning)

(not that I'm not happy where I am, but that's the category...)

Superbowl Ads

2006-02-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

As you are all probably aware, the best part of the Superbowl is the ads (especially when the refs are that bad...). Google has a bunch of them available for viewing. Here are a few of my favourites.

Stunt City - I think this was the best of the bunch. Very clever, very funny, lots of stuff going on.

Emerald Nuts - These are always pretty good but this one was especially absurd.

Secret Fridge - This was the funniest of the Bud Light ads.

MacGyver - MacGyver is awesome.

FedEx - The guy's expression when the boss tells him it's not his problem is awesome.

Superfan Cowboy - One of Bud's better ads.

Clydesdale American Dream - Another Bud ad. This one's really cute.

Touch Football - Finishing up the beer ads...

Escape Hybrid - I had mixed feelings about this one. See for yourself...

Enjoy!

2006-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

Curses! This sounds awesome, but I'm not eligible for it. Teman?

Me at Ministry

2006-01-21T01:49:00.000-08:00

Me at Ministry.

Embarassing photo time! Whee! I've scanned in a few old pictures and added them to my flickr with the tag "old". I find them to be good for a chuckle...

This photo is of me drinking something called a flaming Hellraiser (yes, the drink is on fire as I suck it through the straw). This was during the winter of '95-'96* at a bar in Paris called Ministry. It was a heavy metal & industrial themed bar - totally awesome. It's unfortunately no longer there...

Note that I am wearing necklaces - I used to have quite a penchant for a few pieces of jewelry. The longer one is a three toed claw clutching an amethyst ball (purchased at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, VA, during my freshman year of high school) and the shorter one is a celtic rune for strength of character. I probably also had an earring in and a couple of rings on. Stylin'!

More old photos...

*actually, according to the date stamp on the photo, it was taken January 3rd, 1996

Humour

2006-01-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

My friend Taybin found the funniest blonde joke ever. Check it out!

Me at Machu Picchu

2006-01-09T23:31:00.000-08:00

Me at Machu Picchu.

More photos to come later, but here's a teaser photo of me at Machu Picchu.

2006-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Harold Pinter's Nobel prize acceptance speech is very interesting reading.

Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued - or beaten to death - the same thing - and your own friends, the military and the great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was a commonplace in US foreign policy in the years to which I refer.

...

The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.

The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.

The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.

...

The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government. It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and free education were over. Big business returned with a vengeance. 'Democracy' had prevailed.

But this 'policy' was by no means restricted to Central America. It was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is as if it never happened.

The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Or... ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Balancing on the edge

2005-12-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Balancing on the edge.

This is me balancing on the edge of the ledge around the 61st floor of the Macau Tower. I was harnessed but it was still psychologically a bit challenging to get that close to the edge. The land underneath is Macau; the land across the water is China. I didn't get to keep the orange jumpsuit.

Tarsier

2005-12-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

Tarsier.

Tarsier! So adorable! So freaky! They're the world's smallest primate and apparently were the inspiration for E.T. They have the largest eyes of any mammal, in proportion to their body size. They can turn their heads almost 360 degrees. They can look freakishly worried. They can also jump up to 5 meters.

I <3 Naomi Klein

2005-12-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

Naomi Klein has written a very interesting article for The Nation about the torture debate in the US.

Does it somehow lessen the horrors of today to admit that this is not the first time the US government has used torture to wipe out its political opponents--that it has operated secret prisons before, that it has actively supported regimes that tried to erase the left by dropping students out of airplanes? That, at home, photographs of lynchings were traded and sold as trophies and warnings? Many seem to think so. On November 8 Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott made the astonishing claim to the House of Representatives that "America has never had a question about its moral integrity, until now." Molly Ivins, expressing her shock that the United States is running a prison gulag, wrote that "it's just this one administration...and even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice President Dick Cheney." And in the November issue of Harper's, William Pfaff argues that what truly sets the Bush Administration apart from its predecessors is "its installation of torture as integral to American military and clandestine operations." Pfaff acknowledges that long before Abu Ghraib, there were those who claimed that the School of the Americas was a "torture school," but he says that he was "inclined to doubt that it was really so." Perhaps it's time for Pfaff to have a look at the SOA textbooks coaching illegal torture techniques, all readily available in both Spanish and English, as well as the hair-raising list of SOA grads.

...

Despite all the talk of outsourced torture, the Bush Administration's real innovation has been its in-sourcing, with prisoners being abused by US citizens in US-run prisons and transported to third countries in US planes. It is this departure from clandestine etiquette, more than the actual crimes, that has so much of the military and intelligence community up in arms: By daring to torture unapologetically and out in the open, Bush has robbed everyone of plausible deniability.

For those nervously wondering if it is time to start using alarmist words like totalitarianism, this shift is of huge significance. When torture is covertly practiced but officially and legally repudiated, there is still the hope that if atrocities are exposed, justice could prevail. When torture is pseudo-legal and when those responsible merely deny that it is torture, what dies is what Hannah Arendt called "the juridical person in man"; soon enough, victims no longer bother to search for justice, so sure are they of the futility (and danger) of that quest. This impunity is a mass version of what happens inside the torture chamber, when prisoners are told they can scream all they want because no one can hear them and no one is going to save them.

Billy Collins

2005-11-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

Before this past weekend, I was familiar with Billy Collins but hadn't read any of his poems. This has since changed and I have been thoroughly entranced by him. Here are a couple of poems that capture a lot of what I enjoy about him thus far:

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

My kind of DVD player

2005-11-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

My kind of DVD player.

Anyone know where I can buy one of these?

Highland Cattle

2005-11-12T11:47:00.000-08:00

Highland Cattle.

Highland Cattle up in the highlands of Scotland. Great hairstyles.

Hong Kong Island at night

2005-11-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong Island at night.

Apropos of nothing, here's a photo of Hong Kong Island at night, taken from Kowloon. Mostly, I just wanted to try posting photos to a blog from Flickr. It appears to have worked!

Really, though, isn't it quite beautiful?

This is not my real blog

2005-11-01T13:58:00.000-08:00

If you want to know my real blog, ask me.