Early This Morning

We were woken up by the cat jumping onto the bed, walking across us, and hunkering down into a sphinx position, purring loudly the whole time. I was just getting back to sleep a while later when I realized we don't have a cat.

Is Justin Long The New Bruce Campbell?

"I just chopped my own hand off because it was possessed by a demon."
"And I'm a PC."

I like Justin Long. And I like Sam Raimi. I want to see Drag Me To Hell, but trying to keep my expectations under control.

Cast Iron Pan

Here's my method for cleaning a cast-iron pan. But there's no good reason to follow my advice. This is a nice way to burn yourself or start a fire. I once started a big grease fire in a cast-iron pan, went to smother it with the nearest lid handy, which turned out to be such a horrible choice that it burst into flames, too. That was bad. Fortunately no one was home at the time, but I did have some explaining to do later.

Anyway, some people claim you should never wash your pan. Others say to always wash it. I have a hybrid approach where I always wash the pan with soap & water but then always re-season it afterwards. I wash it using a regular scouring pad -- the kind that doesn't detune a nonstick pan. Don't worry, this will not unseason a properly seasoned pan. After washing, though, dry it and put it on a burner to get it nice and hot and dry. When hot, add a bit of oil, take a paper towel or two, and wipe the hot oil over every surface of the pan, inside and out, including the handle. If you and your house survive this step, leave it to cool completely. Once completely cool, take some clean paper towel and wipe the whole thing again, removing all the excess oil. It should now be clean yet seasoned, ready to store for next use.

Star Trek

Exceeded expectations. I loved it. It was done with even more affection than I could have hoped for. And really, that's all I wanted -- a treatment done with a bit of love and panache, in which everyone's having fun but embracing their characters rather than standing off in parody. Kirk is perfect. Karl Urban as McCoy is awesome (but I expected him to be good, he's so underrated he nearly rescued Doom). Chekov goes so far beyond over-the-top that he comes out the other side and seems perfectly reasonable. Sulu very nice. Uhura great. Only Simon Pegg seemed to be having a bit too much fun. I half-expected Nick Frost to turn up, pint in hand, ready to smack the accent off him. Cute, yet eminently trekkie, way to brush aside continuity issues, too. Bring on the sequels! (Can we get some tribbles in there?)

Shoot London Results

All the photos, with phrases/story, are now available.

Shoot London Photo Event

Participated in a photo event at the Tate Modern with some friends on Saturday. Each team was randomly assigned 4 photos to shoot, each photo corresponding to a word or short phrase. These would then be assembled in order, to fully illustrate a story. The story was not known until after the shoot, so the phrases were without context. There was a time limit of 3 hours to get the photos done. That goes by very quickly. No editing allowed, and only one photo per phrase.

Our phrases were:

"she yelled"

"this hard economic climate"

"Saffren Walden"

"goji berry salads"

At the end, they were assembled into a slideshow and displayed in sync with a reading of the whole story. The whole thing was interesting and great fun. I would definitely do it again. The participative aspect of it worked, but overall I don't think the end product works as art for anyone other than those involved. The photos themselves don't tell a story. Nor do they really illustrate the story. The lack of context is part of the problem, but that's what makes it fun when doing it and surprising when revealed. (The downside is that this can encourage people to go for cheap laughs, as with bad improv.) Trying to have every word of the story covered by one picture or another is a problem. And even for participants, there were too many photos. Something around 500 -- fatigue set in after the first 100 or so even for the most attentive of viewers. This was the first time they'd done this "story" format, so it will be interesting to see it evolve. I would go with half the number of photos -- same number of teams, 2 photos each, and not try to cover every word.

Color My Yolks

Was in US last week and did a double-take cutting into a hard-boiled egg in a salad to find a canary-yellow yolk. Have gotten so used to dark orange that it seemed bizarre until I remembered that tweety-colored yolks are typical for factory extruded eggs. What do they feed them to get them that color?

Camera Pricing

Current exchange rates are roughly 1 GBP = $1.50, and 1 EUR = $1.34. So a camera that costs, say, $800 might reasonably be expected to list for under £550 (throw VAT in and still less than £650) or €600.

Nikon D5000
body only: $729, €699, £719

Canon is even more egregrious, on the recently announced EOS 500D list prices:
body only: $799, €799, £869 (!!)

I also notice that the Nikon 85mm f1.4 lens is now more expensive used than it was new 18 months ago. I don't understand this market.

Hummingbird Nation

One of those things that once you start noticing, you can't stop noticing: so many people constantly sipping sugar-water. Not just sodas and juice, but "sports" drinks, "energy" drinks. How did everyone get convinced they needed to do this?

I went for a short bike ride the other morning, about 80 minutes, on an empty stomach and without taking so much as water. Nothing bad seemed to happen. Almost everyone exercising now seems to think that sugar water is mandatory. You see it at the gym, at the park, at the pool (most likely the ones bringing gatorade to the pool are triathletes). But the phenomenon is not limited to those in some kind of "training". I regularly see people sugaring up in the morning on the bus, or just walking around sipping the stuff. I bet if I put oversized hummingbird feeders out front I could attract a crowd of glassy-eyed commuters.

Organic Massage

I saw a flyer today advertising "organic massage". I admit I don't want to be caged, chemically fertilized, or even, um, "intensively reared" while getting a massage, but I've never felt I needed to seek out an "organic" variety.

Waisting Away

Well, sixteen weeks since I had the low-carb chip implanted in my skull and began the morning ritual of singing the Low-Carb Loyalty Song ("protein protein/ lipid lipid/ save us from/ ornish insipid ...."), I am enjoying a surprising but entirely welcome visit from my old friend Mr. 36" Waist Trousers. I was happy enough to get from 40->38 fairly quickly and didn't much think about when 38s would become too big. It's been many years. So many that I don't think I have a suitable stash of trousers this size anymore. Sheesh, this low-carbing is going to get expensive.

Zombie Healthcare: Prevention vs. Symptomatic Treatment

Traditionally, the treatment of the zombie problem has focused on both prevention (e.g. "avoid getting bitten") and after-the-fact symptomatic treatment (e.g. "shoot patient in head with shotgun"). While this seems a thorough, two-pronged approach, there is a notable gap in the medical literature on prevention, specifically prevention during the post-death, pre-zombie phase. I've searched pubmed but come up empty-handed. For now, in the absence of rigorous studies, I suggest we launch a public health campaign aimed at education/awareness using our best guesses at effective treatment. The focus of this would be "What To Do If You're Dead", and would cover the short but crucial period in between becoming dead and becoming undead. Motility Addiction is real and very hard to overcome, even post-death (e.g. when given the opportunity to indulge in motility by virtue of external forces such as zombieness). We urgently need a campaign to counteract this impulse by reminding people "if you find yourself dead, please remain so". I'm sure our creative types can come up with catchy phrases and jingles to drive this point home.