26 June 2009

Slicer!


For father's day, I got a meat slicer. I've not yet injured myself with it, but it's been great fun. Have sliced salami, bacon -- bacon is sliced thickly here, but I was able to make american-style crispy bacon by thin-slicing a hunk of smoked streaky bacon from the butcher, perfect! -- and tonight, roast beef. Last night I roasted a nicely aged hunk of rump to a perfect medium-rare, let it cool completely, then stuck it in the fridge. Tonight I fired up the slicer, and turned the roast into a large mound of shaved beef, beautifully folded paper-thin slices. I heaped some onto a makeshift foil plate, topped it with cheddar, popped it under the broiler until the cheese was bubbling and the exposed edges of beef were crispy, and served on thick slices of tomato with salt and pepper. Fantastic.

25 June 2009

Still Confused About Finance?

Just read the first and last paragraphs of this article. That's it in a nutshell.

18 June 2009

Cricket

I went to my first ever cricket matches, taking in 2 double-headers as part of the Twenty20 World Cup. This version apparently offends purists, since each match takes only a few hours, includes excitement, and ends with one team winning. It also has music and dancing cheerleader types during pauses, which sounds American except it's done in a charmingly amateurish way. Anyway, I really enjoyed it.

Lord's vs. the Oval: The pitch/field/whatever you call it at the Oval was beautiful. Our seats were better at the Oval, and I got the impression that the average viewing is better there. Lord's, though, has more charm. They don't compares favorably with decent US baseball stadiums. The charming bits are not as charming as those on the old ballparks, nor are the "modern" bits anywhere close to the comfort and slickness of the modern ballparks. Next time a cricket ground needs building or modernizing, they'd do well to take a trip to half a dozen good baseball stadiums for an idea of what to aim for.

That said, the appeal of the game is very similar: a grassy oasis in an urban setting, a game without a clock, during the day, that allows a break from the city pace. The sounds of the ball-on-bat and the look and smell of the cut grass are, as with baseball, part of the allure.

Skills: Batting and bowling, although different than baseball, are equally demanding of skill. The fielding was shockingly poor. I assume fielding must not be that important in the multi-day test matches. Even many of the acrobatic catches fans would ooh and aah over were acrobatic only because the fielder misjudged the ball and had to make a wild leap at the end to compensate. The number of bobbles and miscatches or outright misses was astonishing. If Twenty20 continues to increase in popularity, this will naturally improve as younger players come up with fielding skills actually mattering. Baserunning was the other odd skill -- there was often a lack of hustle. Too much lollygagging, waiting to see what happens and if you should continue running. But it makes more sense to hustle to the wicket so you're in shape to continue on if need be. It's hard to explain without some visual examples, but each team left several potential runs on the field simply due to lackadaisical running.

Game Shortening: This was the most worst, and most surprising, aspect. I was not clear on the rules, but England got screwed by a rain delay in a loss to the West Indies. England batted (pretty well), and then there was a rain delay before West Indies came up to bat. This lasted long enough to shorten the game, which meant that not all of England's overs would count. So West Indies to win had to score fewer runs in fewer overs but with no reduction in wickets. This makes no sense. It's a different game and you can take risks you otherwise wouldn't. In essence, you get license to swing away. A 9 overs match is different than a 20 overs match. England did not know they were playing a 9-overs match until after they'd already batted 20 overs, which makes it patently unfair. In baseball terms, imagine if baseball were played, instead of alternating, by having one team bat until they reached 27 outs, or the other team had thrown 150 pitches, whichever came first, then the other team got to bat using the same rules. The rain delay rule would be like the second team coming up to bat but, to win, only having to exceed the first team's total after 50 pitches, but still getting 27 outs. Not being nearly as limited for outs, they'd go nuts swinging for the fences. If your team can hit big (and West Indies can), it's a huge advantage. I'm still bitter.

15 June 2009

Whole Health Source Blog...

is one of the blogs I link to on the left there, but I wanted to draw particular attention to it since Stephan has been on a tear the last 5 weeks or so. Great stuff. I heartily recommend spending the time catching up on his recent posts if you haven't yet.
That means eating full-fat dairy if you tolerate it, fatty meat if you enjoy it, organs, seafood, olive oil in moderation, coconut oil, butter, lard, and tallow. Along with a diet that is dominated by real, homemade food rather than processed food. Some people may also wish to supplement with small doses of high-vitamin cod liver oil, fish oil or flax. I consider the latter to be inferior to animal sources of omega-3, but it can be useful for vegetarians.

12 June 2009

Health Care: Quantity, Quality, Cost, & Capitalism

Great article on health care costs -- I'm still digesting it, but it's essential reading. Quite a few points to ponder. One of which, for me, is the typical blend of astonishing and appalling that comes with capitalism. Many people put on their polarized shades and see only the good or only the bad. Here, in a nutshell, is both: on the astonishing, a small, poor city on the border has state-of-the-art medical facilities and treatments available; on the appalling: poor results given the costs, profit motive turning on a procedure-driven revenue model.

09 June 2009

Another Tube Strike

They really know how to minimize sympathy. This excellent song always seems to sum it up pretty well.

07 June 2009

Smokin' Gas Grill Actually Works

Yesterday I setup my grill for smoking, as recommended here. I don't have a good oven thermometer yet to leave in the grill, so I didn't have high hopes for temperature control. My objective for the first attempt was really just proof-of-concept. Mainly I wanted to produce some smoke and get something edible out of it. I got wood chips from Tesco, of all places. Temperature control was, as expected, all over the place. But I did get smoke! I cooked a chicken and a couple sheets of pork ribs. I went light on the rub, which was brown sugar, salt, ground cumin, dried oregano, and paprika. The chicken was done in a bit over an hour and a half. The ribs I pulled off after 3 hours (once I get better at temp control, these would take longer). They were all really tasty! The smoke flavor was subtle in the chicken, but still noticeably different than chicken straight on the grill or in the oven. The ribs had a slightly smokier flavor, still not heavy by any means (the aim was to go easy on the smoke, too). So the proof-of-concept was successful, certainly successful enough to invest in a thermometer and try it again.


06 June 2009

Groovy Anathem Tie-Ins

Parts of Anathem were inspired by the real-life clock project of the Long Now Foundation, which also inspired this excellent essay from Michael Chabon (linked to from the foundation's site). If you really want to geek out, hey, there's music! At this point, though, I've about had enough and cast my gaze onto more immediate, low-brow concerns.

Camera Pricing P.S.

I'd mentioned earlier that one of my lenses -- a nikon 85mm f1.4 -- seemed to be worth more used now than when I'd bought it new over 18 months ago. I put this to the test and sold it on ebay. Turns out to be true! I made a tidy profit, which I will now use to buy two new lenses.

Anathem

I finally read Anathem. I'd pre-ordered it, as Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors, but then been overcome with dread once it actually arrived. I did find it nearly unreadable for the first 30 pages or so. The invented vocabulary more often distracts than enhances, but at least there's a point to it. I ended up really enjoying it. As a bonus, I found myself thinking back on Plato and Hume and Kant, guys I'd not thought about in far too long. Anyway, you'll know whether or not this kind of book will drive you nuts. If it won't, I recommend it.