Ploafmaster General

The A.V. Club has an excellent and lengthy interview with Anthony Bourdain, candid and acerbic as ever. Well worth the read.
(via kottke)

I had a message on my voice mail from Richmond Camera indicating that my roll of slide film has been developed, and the CD of digital transfers was ready for pickup as well. I'm eager to check these out, hoping that at least a handful of shots from the 24 exposure roll turned out alright...

If the digital transfers are decent, I'll probably try bringing in a few slices of cut negatives from recently developed film to have them digitally transferred as well. If THAT works, I'll probably have many more negatives scanned in since my scanner seems to provide rather disappointing results when I scan the prints.

Can somebody please tell me when it became acceptable to hold conference calls at full volume in your cubicle, even though there are clearly other people who work in the cubicle immediately beside you?

While I'm certainly watching the Giants at the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon, what do you suppose the odds are that Valerie will let me watch every playoff game this weekend? They all look like rather exciting games...

:-)

Ah, the iconic Xerox logo...40 years old, and still conveys a strong identity of technology in the realm of the printed word.

Until today. BEHOLD! Before you is Xerox's new dull identity, conveying something more like, "Hi, we're an upstart Silicon Valley tech firm in 1997 with no business plan! Would you like to buy some stock?"

(architect's rendering, I believe)

If you live in Richmond or simply love the River City as much as I do, you ought to check out the Richmond Downtown Master Plan. Jake tipped me off to this recently, and after checking it out I have to say I'm optimistic. I'm particularly glad to see the focus on mixed-use space and more so on increasing pedestrian traffic. Having read (and slowly still reading!) some of Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, I'm encouraged to see some of these principals paid the attention they deserve in the course of urban revitalization.

The City Planning Commission is holding a public hearing for comments and such next Tuesday, the 15th. I plan to be there, and if you care about where you live (and that place is Richmond) I recommend you check it out, too.

Flickr user Christopher Holland created this excellent little sculpture. I commented on the photo on the originating page:

"This is really cool! It appeals to both my nerdy-technical and creative/design-oriented sides.

I like the continuation of the air stream concept in the lines on the box top as well."

Anyway, I dig it :-)

Isn't it a little sad and disturbing that now almost nobody is paying attention to Iowa? Suddenly the whole news-scape has their collective eye on New Hampshire for the first primary election (again, only for the two major parties). I wonder how much attention will be paid New Hampshire after tomorrow?

I'm just sayin'.

Just writing a short post to congratulate my brother, Mugs, for his new job. For the sake of his online privacy, I'll not name the company, but it's a definite step up in his burgeoning IT career. His new employer will provide plenty of opportunity for growth and continued education, and represents a more stable work environment than the job from which he resigned today. He'll be spending this week with his family before continuing to take the computing world by storm on Monday the 14th.

Rock on, bro!

I think Jake will be pleased that I didn't go for the Aldo Hilarion :-)

These are my new kicks, and it's pretty cool to have some semi-casual shoes with real cushioning. They already fit very comfortably without having been broken in, so I expect them only to become more comfortable with time. And no, I didn't pay nearly as much as you might think - I got a pretty killer deal, actually.

Awww, phooey. It seems like you can't look anywhere in the media these days without seeing some crap about the Iowa Caucuses. So here we have people from one state with less then one percent of the population getting 'round-the-clock coverage because of a non-binding "let's consider who we prefer" event.

Forget that this is another example of the two major parties getting all the attention. Take a look at the lower right-hand corner of the graphic that Blankenship posted today. You see that? Only TWO people that won in the caucuses have made it to the oval office. And look how popular they ended up :-)

Okay, that's not too fair. Popularity isn't a rational measure of political capabilities. But really. Since this event gained widespread attention in '72, only two winners have entered the White House as president? Puh-lease.

I'll pay attention when something truly significant happens.

My father gave Valerie and I a spot of currency for Christmas, and I've decided to use a portion of it for several books I've had on my mind. Here's the short stack:

1. Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - This is the book that, as I understand, identified Anthony Bourdain as the grand curmudgeon of the culinary world. I've always enjoyed his essays, so I look forward to this memoir of his days working in haute cuisine.

2. The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen - Writer Michael Ruhlman's latest book, even he refers to it as a "Strunk and White's" for the kitchen. Should have some excellent essays and provide a fantastic reference for technique.

3. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Ruhlman was involved with this book as well. But really - it'll teach me to make my own bacon. Need I say more?!?

4. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - This is Michael Pollan's follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I've been anticipating it's release since I finished the latter.

I couldn't really pass up the free shipping on Amazon, so now I have at least a week to wait for my volumes to arrive, but I certainly have plenty of reading ahead for 2008 :-)

So there's a whole lotta noise today about the Justice Department opening a criminal investigation over the CIA's destruction of two interrogation tapes.

Wait...they're still using tapes?!?

Before Christianity entered my household, my step-dad used to let my brothers and I watch pretty much any action movie he brought home. He's a huge fan of Schwarzenegger and Stallone, so fill in the blanks. My biological father never really cared what we watched when were were at his house, and he had HBO. This means I saw such gory glories as Commando, Predator, Terminator, and all three Rambo flicks before the age of 10. It also means that I'm all but desensitized to the over-done film violence in some modern cinema. While situationally disturbing, for instance, Se7en's graphic crime scenes did little to turn my stomach. So despite what I'd heard about the veritable river of crimson effluent in Tim Burton's adaptation of the Sondheim musical, it was with eager anticipation that I attended a showing of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Let me tell you, this flick is filled to overflowing with blood and violently realistic depictions of throat slitting (save for some over-dramatic squirting). But it's also filled with excellent music and fantastic acting. I'm already a fan of and quite familiar with Tim Burton's work, so I expected a heavy dose of black humor with the excellent direction, and I wasn't disappointed. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter made excellent leads (with surprisingly decent voices), and the supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman as the despicable Judge Tarpin, helped carry the weight quite well. The story was fairly simple, and great actors don't always make great singers, but this movie was a solid 4 out of 5 stars for me. I can't wait until Burton releases Alice and Wonderland...

I like to get to work earlier than necessary. My office's hours are pretty flexible, so I could technically sit down to work as late as 9:30 AM if I so chose. This, of course, would require me to stay later in the day as well, and this I can't abide.

I'm the sort of fella who likes to arrive by 7:45, work through lunch, and be out the door by 4:30. This allows me to accomplish certain errands that require attention before 5, and I get to leave the office while there's still some shreds of daylight, even during these shorter winter days.

Well this morning, I wish I'd stayed home an extra hour or so.

I arrived at my usual time, and I was digging out from under a vacation's worth of email. I'd just about finished when, at 8:33, I noticed that my network connection had dropped. Before I could consider the impact, the fire alarm for the building went off, and we were all ushered outside. In the 30 degree cold. With wind. For a FULL HALF HOUR.

Thankfully, I'd brought my coat (and my phone, just in case). After we were allowed to return, we still had no internet or phone for a solid half hour while much of the employees milled about with nothing to do. Clearly, the network has been restored...though I have to admit I was kinda hoping for the sort of outage that would have sent us all home :-)

Hooray for 2008! The leap year makes my birthday on Election Day, so I think I'll take the day off to vote, then bitch-and-moan about the government :-)

Of course, I'm really excited about the Summer Olympics. I love watching the gymnastics, the decathlon, et al., and I'm really curious how it's going to work out in air-poisoned Beijing.