|
|
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
| |
11:29 pm - Patent
|
Ever since Lori heard that I might be getting my name on an Apple patent, we've been of two minds about how significant this is.
Lori thinks that it's worth mentioning with considerable pride; I tend to grumble that software patents are too poorly examined to hold any credibility. (Claritech got a patent in the late 90s for a process that was basically two-phase commit for a database. To put this in non-programmer terms, this is like getting a patent today on Leeuwenhoek's original microscope--it's not so trivial that you could do it off the top of your head, but there's definitely prior art.)
Now, there's a third perspective on the matter: Apple's. The patent has finally come through, and Apple thinks this is significant enough to give me a bonus for it: $500.
That seems more or less right like the right amount to me--enough to warrant a mention, perhaps justify a nice dinner, but not enough to make a lasting impression.
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
5:14 pm - Lemon Meringue Pie
|
|
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
| |
2:53 pm - Stress
|
I've been super-stressed the last few months.
It has felt as if my stress is a separate creature from myself. I could easily visualize it as a monkey on my back, but I found it more cheerful to visualize it as a very large rowdy puppy, the sort that pulls you off-balance as it bounds at the leash.
This week, though, it feels like my stress is elsewhere. That stress-creature hasn't vanished, certainly, but it's not in the room with me.
Not sure what to make of this.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
11:41 am - Pittsburgh Barbecue
|
I'm padding my LJ post count with something I posted on the Roadfood forums:
I am far from a bbq expert, but I have never found a place around Pittsburgh that would stay open for more than six months in Memphis, Kansas City or North Carolina. But then, truthfully, I really don't seek them out.
I would basically agree there, and I'd add my native Texas to the list. But sometimes the craving comes upon me, and I emerge from my lair and go forth in search of smoked meat.
Here's a rundown on some of the barbecue places I've tried in the Pittsburgh area:
Mr. Ribbs in Penn Hills was the single worst restaurant dining experience I've ever had. Time has mercifully blurred the details, but I recall that not only was the meat horribly gristly, the macaroni and cheese was as well. It was only several years after it closed that I stopped saying "Feh" every time I passed the site. (There are other places around Pittsburgh with the Mr. Ribbs name, but I don't know if my condemnation should extend to those places as well.)
Red River Barbecue on McKnight Road in the North Hills was obviously not authentic; I don't think I've ever had authentic barbecue in a place with cloth napkins, and the sun-dried cherry coleslaw made it doubly inauthentic. The meat was okay, but the menu had a focus on pork that surprised me--perhaps I was wrong in my assumption that the Red River of the name was the river that forms the Texas-Oklahoma boundary. It has now closed.
Q 4 You in Swissvale was a great barbecue place, in a round little building decorated with flames on the roof. The barbeque was wonderful, with a rich bold flavor. (The proprietor said it was Kansas City-style, with some variations of his own.) I loved the baked beans, which were thick enough to stand a spoon in. Meals also came with soft yeast rolls that were huge--the size of a child's head. The prices were very cheap, also--the two of us could have a full meal with leftovers for the next day for $10.
Unfortunately, Q 4 You closed after a few months. I don't know much about why it closed, but I have a guess. Before it closed for good, it closed for a couple of weeks because the owner had shingles. My guess is that some other catastrophe happened, and he didn't have enough reserves of money or help to stay afloat.
Maverick's Bar-B-Que on Route 30 in East Pittsburgh had no particular barbecue tradition; when I asked him what style of barbecue he served, he shrugged and said "Pittsburgh-style". In this case, that meant a barbecue sandwich served on an Italian roll. The shredded pork was pretty good, but the one time I got the shredded beef, it was like a sandwich full of hot wet beef jerky.
It is now closed.
Jake's Beef and Bar-B-Que in the Pittsburgh Galleria was misnamed--it was a steakhouse decorated in an arty southwestern style, with only a few barbecue items on the menu. I recall that they had several different sauces, and the waiter arranged them artfully on a plate to describe the different sauces. The meat was fairly good, but apparently not good enough to call me to the South Hills often.
It is now closed.
Jameson's was in Oakland, very near the 837 exit off the Parkway East. They advertised their barbecue on their sign, but in practice this meant that they had a beef brisket sandwich on the menu. I was hopeful, because beef brisket is a part of my barbecue tradition that is hard to find around here--but the reality of the sandwich was a disappointment.
It is now closed.
Clem's, out on Route 22 near Blairsville, is not closed as far as I know. (After the number of places I've listed that are closed, that seems to put them above the pack.) It's another place that has no smell of smoke, but the meat is rather good. If I were driving out that way, I would certainly stop in at Clem's, but it's not quite close enough to what I want to draw me that far.
Big Mama's House of Soul, down in the Strip, has been praised by restaurant reviewers. But the one time we went there, service was very slow, and the ribs were kind of tough, which is not how I like my ribs. I would give them another try, but I regard them as on probation.
Smokey Bones is a chain restaurant near The Mall at Robinson. It's a good chain, though, and the barbecue is very good. I'll go there any time I'm near Robinson or I go out to the airport.
Red Hot and Blue was another chain restaurant, this one in the Waterfront shopping center near us. It was a very good chain. It had my favorite ribs outside of Memphis (though I don't try ribs all that often, so this is significant but not astounding praise), and their sides were very good. I particularly liked their Brunswick stew, their mac and cheese, and their cornbread. The restaurant showed a respect and affection for Southern food, Southern hospitality, barbecue, and blues that seemed much more genuine than the usual synthetic chain smarm. We would eat there once or twice a month; we were very sad when it closed.
Famous Dave's Barbecue, near Waterworks, was much more synthetic in their attempts to charm. The barbecue was pretty good, but not wonderful. The sauce was a bit too spicy for Lori.
That location is now closed.
Mitch's Mobile Bar-B-Que Pit is a guy and his smoker trailer. The menu is far from authentic barbecue, but it's pretty good. We had him bring his smoker to our house to cater our wedding party, and we might well do so again for an anniversary party. He also makes his own ice cream, which was pretty good.
Elliott's Backstreet Barbecue on 51 in the South Hills has lasted for over a decade (and not closed yet as far as I know). I haven't eaten there in many years, but I remember the food being fairly good, but not special.
Mr. Willie's BBQ opened recently in Squirrel Hill. Its menu is mostly ribs and fried chicken; this is a barbecue tradition shared by several restaurants in Pittsburgh, but it's not my barbecue tradition. I know we've eaten there, but I have little memory of the food, and even when we're in Squirrel Hill, I'd probably eat somewhere else instead.
Gramma Anna's BBQ in Wilkinsburg was another freakishly smoke-free place, but the barbecue was pretty good. They had four sauces, of which I particularly liked their mustard sauce. The sign is still there, but one day I went in and the people there seemed to be running a temp agency, with no indications of selling food at all.
BJ's BBQ Smokehouse is in Swissvale--or at least, the sign is. When I tried to eat there on Saturday, I found all the doors locked, and the phone number on their sign is disconnected. I'm not optimistic that they will satisfy my barbecue cravings.
A few barbecue restaurants in the Pittsburgh area that I've been meaning to try:
Cho-Cho's has recently opened up in Wilkinsburg. It would do well on convenience to my home. The name reminds me of the cannibalistic Tcho-Tcho's from H. P. Lovecraft's fiction, but I don't think that I can reasonably hold that against them.
Wilson's BBQ on the North Side has been around for decades, and was featured in Rick Sebak's TV special on the North Side. I'm not sure that Rick Sebak is an expert on barbecue, though.
Two Brothers Bar-B-Q in the South Hills won "Best Barbecue" in a Post-Gazette opinion poll. I'm not sure how much I can trust Post-Gazette readers about barbecue, but it's certainly worth checking out.
Steel City Smokehouse and Saloon in Century III Mall got a good review from the P-G's food reviewer (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08241/907415-440.stm ). I don't expect a wonderfully authentic experience, but Munch's enthusiasm makes me want to check it out.
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 13th, 2009
| |
1:07 pm - Sequence, Belated
|
On November 11, 1998, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jeliza sent out this message:
What's the next thing in this sequence?
1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221,
I didn't figure it out. I finally asked her about it on March 15, 2001, and she told me the next member: 312211.
I still didn't figure out the pattern.
On November 11, 2009, I discovered the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences through hitting "Random" on Wikipedia. I remembered that old sequence that had stumped me, and plugged it in; it's A005150. (That link would certainly be a spoiler.)
Eleven years is probably not the longest gap between riddle and answer that I'll encounter. It may well happen that when I'm retired, I'll remember something from my teens and go "OOoohh, now I get it!"
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| |
12:58 pm - Effective Writing
|
I really like this bit of writing in a notice sent by Apple:
If neither of the above statements is true, you can stop reading here.
I have no idea what the rest of the letter said, and I'm glad.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009
| |
2:17 pm - The Triple Undisputed Burger
|
|
| |
8:28 am
|
Just woke up from a fascinating dream.
It was a hard-boiled mystery story, printed as a cheap old paperback whose yellowing pages broke from the binding as I read.
The first-person protagonist was a drag queen named Chakodray, who was navigating a seedy underbelly of Chicago. My mental picture of Chakodray was that he was black, stout, and bald, and clearly unfeminine despite wearing women's clothes.
Clues I remember: both the original victim and the she's-probably-going-to-die-too witness (referred to in the book as a "Sine", which I assumed was slang for prostitute) had a black eye. The original victim had had a baseball bat nearby; the sine said she had picked up a telescope by mistake.
The fusillade of gunfire through the door that had interrupted the interview with the sine had apparently been a warning to her--but my mystery-reading instincts thought that it would turn out that the real purpose was to kill the black dog outside.
Chapter 3 had just begun an uncomfortable interview with the police when I was wakened.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 6th, 2009
| |
8:02 pm - [Pandemic] Sorry about that, Africa
|
Today, we made our first attempt at playing a four-player, six-Epidemic game.
For most of the game, we were doing okay. We were doing an agressive job of keeping trouble spots under control, because we've learned that it's much easier to keep things under control than to fix them once they start to go pear-shaped.
Africa was starting to heat up, a bit, so Andy headed down there and built a research station.
At of his actions, there were two cubes on Johannesburg, two cubes on Kinshasa, and one cube on Lagos.
Over the course of his infection phase and the infection phases of the next two players, drew Kinshasa and Johannesburg again, putting three cubes on each.
Then I drew an Epidemic, putting each of those two cities at "could outbreak" danger levels.
Then, for my infection phase, I drew Kinshasa as the first card: a chain reaction of two outbreaks, which also brought Lagos and Khartoum to two cubes each.
As the second infection card, I drew Johannesburg: another chain reaction through Johannesburg and Kinshasa. And the two cubes from the chain reaction made Khartoum outbreak.
And Khartoum's outbreak pushed Lagos into outbreaking as well.
Total: six outbreaks in one infection phase.
We managed to survive until the next outbreak, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion from there.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Monday, November 2nd, 2009
| |
12:09 pm - Jack-o-lanterns 2009
|
|
| Monday, October 26th, 2009
| |
4:27 pm - Leaves
|
It's actually not all that common for me to see really glorious autumn leaves. It requires a special combination of leaves at their peak color, weather that shows off their color well, and me being available physically and emotionally to see them. (Of these three, the last may be hardest to achieve.)
Last week, we entered a sudden eye in the long storm of our work, and we were urged by management to take Friday off.
I started my lazy day with a walk around the neighborhood. From our doorstep, I saw this: 
That provoked me to take some more pictures as I walked around:
The view from the street coming up toward our house: 
A tree a few blocks away:
After my walk, my plan was to head into Squirrel Hill to buy cheap CDs at The Exchange. But as I drove across the bridge whereby Forbes Avenue crosses over Frick Park, I was awestruck by the splendor of the hillside there. I considered stopping to take pictures, but there was no place to park, and so I drove on.
The parking lot in Squirrel Hill was full. All right. Sometimes I can figure out what I really want in only two tries. I drove back to Frick Park.
The hillside that make me turn back: 
Forbes Avenue, just west of the bridge: 
Looking down into the park from the bridge: 
The Frick Park playground: 
More photos and larger versions of these photos are available at http://gallery.me.com/lorimelton#100024&bgcolor=black&view=mosaic . I'm not delighted by many of them--they don't seem to capture the rich lustrous colors that I saw. Even so, the process of taking these pictures nudged me to look at the gorgeous leaves more than I might otherwise have, and bringing me into the moment that way was a very good thing.
I took these pictures with my iPhone, and that's been a bit frustrating; I'm still having trouble taking great pictures. It's clearly able to do both overexposed and underexposed, so it seems that just right should be an option, but I'm having trouble finding it. However, the iPhone does have one major virtue as a camera: unlike other cameras, I actually carry the iPhone with me and take pictures with it. (And some minor virtues, like location-tagging pictures.) I dither about whether it would be more effective towards getting good photos to try to develop the habit of carrying a better camera with me, or to learn to take better pictures with the iPhone.
(A question for my photographically-clueful friends: can these pictures be improved with digital manipulation? (My handiest set of tools would be those provided by iPhoto.) Keep in mind that I have not developed much eye at all; I can barely explain that something is wrong, much less explain what the problems are. So I might very well be delighted by cheap tricks that would make better photographers scoff.)
Monday's leaves are not nearly as nice as Friday's were--many of the most brilliant trees have already shed their leaves, so blazing reds and oranges have given away to golds and rusts. I'm glad I happened to see the leaves in their full glory then.
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 10th, 2009
| |
10:57 pm - Repo! the Genetic Opera
|
Lori persuaded me to watch Repo! the Genetic Opera with her.
It was crap.
I suppose that it wasn't all bad. It had at least one character one could care a little about, if only one or two. It did have one decent song, if only one. It had a plot that had some similarities to a good plot, in much the same way that Bugs Bunny in drag resembles a beautiful woman.
It did have a good amount of attractive women in gothy outfits... but the rest of the movie dragged that down below the waterline.
Bleah.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, October 8th, 2009
| |
11:16 am
|
A little story of a mental glitch:
Lori's been pretty sick this week. Coughing, fever in the low 100s, chills, et cetera.
This morning, I realized that I'm starting to feel sick too.
I thought "I hope that Lori recovers by the time I'm really sick."
Then I realized that I had something better to wish for that was equally plausible: "I hope that I don't get really sick."
I know that I'm not perfectly rational, but I'm far from reconciled to it.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, September 20th, 2009
| |
10:18 pm - Roadfood Eating Tour -- Hasty Notes from Sunday
|
- First: Beef on Weck at Schwabl's. We have the restaurant all to ourselves, and they've hired extra carvers just for us. The beef on weck is delicious, and comes with delicious German potato salad. The coleslaw is merely excellent, so we manage to avoid eating much of that.
- Ted's Red Hots. Nice hot dog with just a little snap. Pretty good thin onion rings. Loganberry juice tastes like Kool-Aid.
- Across the street to Anthony's Frozen Custard. We share a Pumpkin-vanilla twist cone. Very nice.
- To Anchor Bar, the most-named site for the origin of the Buffalo wing. Michael Stern sits at our table. We consider ordering a single beef on weck sandwich for the whole table, but by the time we have a chance to place the order, we have eaten too many wings. Good wings.
- Bus ride back to the hotel. Surprise! Jojo proposes to Mike on the bus. Much cheering.
- Another trip to Antoinette's. "Mint-pineapple" topping on the menu leads us to a vanilla sundae topped with pineapple, green mint syrup, whipped cream (piped from a pastry bag) and peanuts. Mint-pineapple verdict: slightly odd, but very tasty.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 19th, 2009
| |
8:06 pm - Roadfood Eating Tour -- Hasty Notes
|
My hope is that I'll expand on these notes to larger entries, but given my posting history, it would be reasonable to doubt that. But hey, better than nothing.
Friday:
- left Lori's school promptly at 3, drove up 28.
- stopped in Bethlehem for the New Bethlehem Peanut Butter Festival
-- got cookies and pastry from Uzi's, whom we've loved in Brookvile. Purchasing cookies to share with Roadfooders turns out to be carrying coals to Newcastle.
-- sampled the peanut butter hot dog. Not very peanut-buttery. More info: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06162/697385-34.stm
- beautiful views and beautiful weather near Allegheny National Forest
- Dinner at Eddy's in Salamanca, NY. Good fish fry, bleah salad bar.
Saturday:
- met people at 9, boarded bus at 9:30
- first stop: Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester. Tasty ribs, good pulled pork and beef brisket. Introduced to salt roasted potatoes.
- walked to Nick Tahou's Hots. When the organizer tried to explain to the proprietor Alex Tahou that it wasn't all one check, Alex said (more or less) "being in Roadfood has brought us so much business over the years, it's on the house." So we put a lot of money into his children's charity bucket instead. Had the cheeseburger garbage plate: hash browns, macaroni salad, cheeseburger patty, mustard, meaty sauce (called "hot sauce" but not a hot pepper sauce) all piled on a plate. Pretty tasty, excellent atmosphere--felt really familial.
- Surprise! Greg Marshall, from visitrochester.com, has come on the bus with apples picked yesterday. Excellent apples, though Lori's wasn't perfectly ripe. Also, nice apple cider and/or Genesee beer.
- LDR Char Pit. Tasty steak sandwich (thin slice of steak with melted cheese and onion on a hamburger bun--not like a cheesesteak). Tasty Red Hot--hot dog-like sausage split, grilled, served on hamburger bun. Rick Palermo, proprietor, also said "don't worry about it" when we sought to pay.
- around the corner to Abbott's for frozen custard. Lori got butter pecan and pumpkin custards--very tasty.
- Surprise! We're going to the Orleans County fairgrounds for Cornell Chicken prepared by the East Gaines VFD (at no additional cost to us). Cornell Chicken (marinated in spices, cooked for 3+ hours and basted often): so good. Homemade pineapple cream pie: so good. Homemade apple pie, with local apples: so good, with amazingly flaky crust. I aspire to make pie like this.
- back to hotel. Subset is going to Antoinette's ice cream / candy shop. Lori has vanilla ice cream topped with french chocolate pudding and whipped cream. Ralph has bananas foster ice cream topped with butter-rum sauce. Both tasty. Note: whipped cream is hand-piped. Other interesting toppings on menu include mint-pineapple.
Ralph walks back 3 miles to hotel, burns off small fraction of ice cream, much less other food.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 17th, 2009
| |
4:05 pm - To Sap and Impurify Our Precious Bodily Fluids
|
I got told by a doctor recently that the average sperm count for men in Pittsburgh has declined by 50% over the last four years, due to artificial hormones making their way into the water supply.
That's a startling drop in a very short time.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, September 14th, 2009
| |
5:08 pm - Brainloading is Fundamental
|
This post from fadethecat has been making me think about the way I read. (Not very deeply at all--I envy fadethecat and artbroken the deeper reading they describe.)
That led me by the usual train of digressions to the following thought experiment:
Suppose that in the recognizable future, scientific understanding of memory formation has progressed to the point that we're capable of implanting memories of a text.
In a few minutes, you can get artificial memories that are comparable to the memories you would have formed by careful, thorough study of the text. You can recite memorable passages, recall details of good bits, and understand subtleties of the development of themes.
Other than the reduced time cost, the costs and risks are comparable to those of reading.
Would you want to get texts brainloaded that way, or read those texts in the traditional way? Are there circumstances that affect your answer?
For technical texts, like programming books or RPG materials, I'm all for the brainloading.
Similarly, for most of the books I was assigned to read in college classes, I'd be happy to get the knowledge implanted as quickly as possible.
But there are some books that I read for an emotional effect. I'm not sure that the feeling of dramatic tension and resolution would be satisfactory if it was only encountered as a memory.
And experiencing erotica only as a memory instead of "live" just seems weird and unsatisfying.
What if the "text" isn't a book or a movie, but something like a gourmet meal? (Ignoring questions of nutrition; this is just about the experience.) I'm not even sure what my answer is there.
I tend to believe that once a thing has happened, its only residue is in my memories... but apparently I'm drawing some distinction of things that I want to experience instead of just remembering. I'm having trouble explaining this distinction, even to myself.
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, September 4th, 2009
| |
5:41 pm - Of Deep-Fried Butter and other things
|
I came across a news story today about the fried food competition for the State Fair of Texas, whose finalists include deep-fried butter:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/sep/01/eight-finalists-best-fried-food-2009-state-fair-te/?refscroll=985
That article mentioned the previous year's winner: country-fried bacon. That led me to Wikipedia's article. I shall quote Wikipedia's section on "Health Issues:"
Since the dish is rich in saturated fat, many health experts suggest consuming it in moderation or not at all. Sally Squires of the Washington Post acknowledged chicken fried bacon's appeal to the palate, but suggests moderation.[9] Other experts note the dish's low nutritional benefits: "They've taken fat, they've double-coated it in fat, they've fried it in more fat, and then they've served it with a side order of fat." Jane Hurley, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., stated she's "never heard of anything worse."
That led me to the blog http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ .
That led me to the page on the Meatini. In their words: "full English fried breakfast served in a cocktail glass made of bacon"
Edit: This is Why You're Fat also led me (via http://insanewiches.com) to http://www.fancyfastfood.com, which reconstructs fast food meals into beautiful gourmet-looking dishes.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
| |
11:57 am - Malygos
|
We finally downed Malygos last night.
For a while, we'd been trying to kill him in a desultory way, attempting him every month or two. In the last few weeks, though, we got serious about trying to kill him, and beat our heads on him twice a week or so.
Focused effort paid off--we finally got him down. It does feel like a real achievement.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 31st, 2009
| |
2:44 pm
|
Running high on impostor feelings right now. Doesn't mean it's true, of course.
Ah well. If I'm as much of a fraud as I feel, it's relatively unlikely that this particular moment will be when it all comes crashing down.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
