The first step in solving your problem is admitting you have a problem.

I mean, I've sort of half-admitted it for a while, danced around the issue, joked about it, tossed it aside. But it's serious business, and something that should be changed. And to change it, you have to throw it out there and publicly, or at least privately, acknowledge it. So here it is:

I'm a breakfast cereal addict.

Many mornings, I get up, eat cereal until I'm full, then eat for about 15 minutes more, and roll out of my chair to start the day. I get indigestion on my morning bike rides, feel awful until about noon, and don't get hungry again until dinner. If I want a snack later, it's cereal again. I justify this to myself by saying how healthy it is. (to be fair, I'm more addicted to healthier cereals. I won't eat, say, Lucky Charms. But granola never stays in the house more than a couple days.) But even so, a lot of a healthy food is unhealthy.

This has been going on for years. I've taken action to stop it once, and succeeded for a while, but then got back into the cereal. Now, I'm back on the wagon.

How to quit? I think I can just do it cold turkey. That's how I did it before. It's easy if there's no cereal in the house. If there is, it's harder, but the fact that I'm declaring this publicly will be good inspiration for me to stay clean.

Why now? Well, I have all this time, you know? I'm sorta trying to tie up every loose end I can so I am as unburdened as possible when I start my new job and life in August. Being free of cereal will help.

Note to anyone with a more typical and harmful addiction: I don't mean to trivialize your addiction in any way. I'm entirely serious here. I have a problem (albeit a small one) and I'm trying to solve it.

Note to anyone with any addiction, serious or not (and think about it; you might have an addiction you don't even realize): if you'd like to quit your addiction along with me, drop me a line. It might be easier for both of us. I can do it. You probably can too!

Bar, part the third and last.

Long-term Snail Shell aficionados may know that I've tried a few times to make the best nutritional bar out of fruits and vegetables. Like a Clif bar, but with actual food in place of "soy protein isolate" and stuff. US FDA RDA's were no object. Neither was taste.

Boy, this is embarrassing.

Unrelatedly, though, I can save a little face by saying that I, before reading that article, already first conquered and then abandoned the Bar project.

First, the "conquered" part: This company called Just Tomatoes makes a product that is, well, just dried vegetables. (I'm sure other companies do too, this is just the one I found) Grind them up in a food processor into a flour, mix them up with an egg, bake until done. There you go: a lot of mixed vegetables, plus an egg, in bar form. No weird ingredients. (if you're vegan, just add water instead of an egg.) I guess it's about as "healthy" as you can get, although you clearly can't reduce foods to just a number of how healthy they are. This brings us to:

Second, the "abandoned" part: It's not worth it. I'm reading In Defense of Food by my food guru, Michael Pollan, who struck a nerve with a bit about how not only are we not eating actual food, we're not actually eating it. Scarfing something down is worse than sitting down to dinner with friends or family, in a lot of ways. In every culture (but not very much in ours) food is social and cultural as well as nutritious. We don't need a new bar to make the food we eat healthier, we need a revolution to make the way we eat food healthier too. As Brillat-Savarin, maybe the first gourmet dude ever, has said: animals feed, humans eat, men of wit dine.

Misbehaving prisoners eat bars.

You shouldn't blog when you're FURIOUS

but I am anyway, and maybe it's a bad idea, but maybe later I will be less outraged and I would kind of like to get this thought out there while I am still outraged.

(another precaution: I'm probably not justly mad, I think I'm just trying to get something for nothing, knowing ahead of time that I shouldn't be allowed to do this, and I'm mad when I can't, so I guess this just makes me a spoiled kid)

Here's my situation: I'm flying Pittsburgh to San Francisco with a stopover in Cleveland. I want to just fly from Cleveland to San Francisco. I can't change this without paying a $150 fee plus blah blah blah. I don't want to change my route, I just want not to be present on that first leg. I mean, they could fill my seat with a mannequin. Whatever. Not allowed, without recalculating the whole thing as if I had said "wait, I don't want to go to San Francisco, I want to go to Dubai," applying fees, etc.

I'm mad at Continental Airlines, I guess, although I know every other airline has the same policy. I'm mad at the entire airline industry for not having systems in place to let me do this. It's just an information systems problem; it's not like the Cleveland-San Francisco flight could possibly be overbooked now or anything, because I was FLYING ON IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Move a few bits and bytes, or convince the flight attendants in Pittsburgh to pretend that I checked in, and all would be well. But I can't, which means a 5 hour greyhound trip from Cleveland to Pittsburgh the day before, and waking up two hours earlier, which means like 4:30am now, and showing up in PIT instead of CLE.

Aargh. If any human had any power, he/she could fix this for me. But the whole goddamn airline industry is so dehumanizing, so mass-produced, factory cattle number-not-a-name squeeze-out-every-last-penny nonsense, that there's nothing that anyone can do. AND it's inefficient and poorly run. But we all keep doing it, because it's the only choice we have if we want to travel long distances.

(postcaution: And in the end, all my outrage is because I can't have everything I want with regards to an AIRLINE FLIGHT. I mean, is cross-country vacation travel a god-given right? No! If I don't like the flight system, maybe I shouldn't fly.)
Signed,
Dan, who is a spoiled kid.

Careful with fish, too...

I'm going to have to start marking these food-related posts with "food".

Cutting meat out of your diet is a big step towards being healthier and more sustainable. But fish is okay, right? All those health recommendations telling you that fish are good for you (have we mentioned omega-3's?), as well as "conventional wisdom" from Christianity that fish isn't meat and therefore can be eaten on Fridays during Lent, means why don't we just gobble up more fish instead of all those burgers? Hell, make salmon patties! Crab cakes!

Anyway, what I'm saying is that eating some fish is pretty bad for the environment too. Not talking massive greenhouse gases or tons of food waste like we are with cows, but we are talking about habitat destruction and species extinction. Here's a pretty good interview about it.

What to do? Rick Moonen (in the above interview) links to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (which I've heard about before) where you can go to check your fish before you buy it to see if it's safe and sustainable. Not at a computer? Use their little print-out card.

Sorry, I realize I got a little pedantic before. Am I being a jerk? Or am I posting so much that you're just not paying attention anymore? You can totally call me out if I am.

Rick Steves? That goofy guy with the fanny packs?

In first news, the fasting experiment seemed to turn out well. I ate no food yesterday, just drank a couple glasses of orange juice and a couple mugs of tea. I got kind of tired by the end of the day, slept pretty well, and am now feeling just fine. Whether it did anything good for me, I don't know, but it was at least not bad for me.

In second news, I was just pointed to Rick Steves's blog, in which he details his recent trip to Iran. His main point: our problem is not with the people but with the government, the people are amazing, and it would be terrible to go to war with a country like this. Reading it, it's hard not to agree. Then, to play devil's advocate, I let my dad's point of view kick in, and I think "that's all very nice, but if they have a crazy government that wants to nuke us, we have to stop them, even at the price of making life more difficult for their people." But isn't that the same as radical Iranians think? I was struck by a sentence where he said Iranians are about as happy with Bush as Americans are with Ahmadinejad. Granted, if you put our society up against theirs, with their lack of so many personal freedoms, I'd take ours any day. But something in me feels like turning Iran into the next Iraq would be the worst possible scenario.

... and that's why I'm voting for Obama. Well, one of the reasons. He seems less likely than McCain to get us into another war. (well, duh, right?)

Don't do it fast, do it half-fast

quoth my dad. See, it's funny, because "half-fast" sounds like "half-assed." Get it?

I'm trying an experiment today: fasting. It seems like a healthy thing to do every once in a while, or at least something that might have a lot of health benefits, and doesn't seem to have any negative health effects (I mean, I'm not wasting away). Sources? Wikipedia is good enough for me. Plus a lot of new-age loonies. Plus the fact that, whenever I don't eat for a while, I feel pretty good. I'll let you know how it goes.

DNUI, or, the Roadside Circus

Last Friday was probably the scariest moment in recent memory. (This proves how easy my life is.)

Background: Sarah and I went to her cousin's wedding. This was on her dad's side of the family, so I only knew a few people: her immediate family and her grandma. Nevertheless, it was fun, and not just because of the open bar.

STORY SIDETRACK
What do you do with a top-40 DJ? (What do you do with a top-40 DJ? What do you do with a top-40 DJ? Early in the morning?)
This mostly comes up at high school dances and, apparently, weddings. If you want to go dance on your own, you probably go to a club that plays the kind of music you like. But yeah. Every so often you get a top 40 DJ. (and I guess by "top 40" I mean "top 40 and friends" which is like half new pop/hip-hop stuff and half old crap like "Shout" or "YMCA" or the Electric Slide.)

Assumption 1: nobody really likes a top-40 DJ. Some people tolerate it, and they kinda like it, but they don't really dig it. They enjoy it a little because it's familiar music.
Assumption 2: you should leave well enough alone, and if people are enjoying something, let them be.
Assumption 3: still, though, it's a little weird to be listening to Lil Jon and Fergie with parents and grandparents.
So what do those leave us with? Is it wrong to request songs that are 7 minutes long and that some people will hate? (like "Rock Lobster"?)

In the end, Sarah had the guts to request it, but the DJ didn't play it (or didn't have it) anyway. When I get married, I'm going to DJ my own wedding. For crying out loud.
END STORY SIDETRACK

Anyway, the wedding was fun, we drank some things, it ended at 10pm (huh?) and so we went upstairs to Sarah's family's hotel room and played Bang! with her family for a couple hours. Headed home around midnight. As we were driving home, we saw some lights and people stopping. We thought it was an accident, okay, we slow down, turns out they're stopping all the cars. We pull up and the officer tells us it's a random DUI checkpoint. Okay, fine.

Now, we had both drank a few things! But we were like 90% fine. We had sobered up for at least two hours. I didn't feel unsafe driving at all. But I had no idea what my BAC was, or if it mattered, and I could tell I was a little bit affected. At any rate, I step out of my car, terrified (because if you get a DUI you are ruined! you're a horrible person! you'll never work in this town again! and your little dog Toto too!), and go over and do some tests.

First test: he has a green penlight, and he keeps telling me to "follow the stimulus" with my eyes. Okay, I could tell they're not quite moving 100% smoothly. Now I'm even more scared.
Second test: walk 9 steps forward, heel-to-toe, count them, take a few small steps around your foot, and walk 9 more steps, same way. I did this fine. I mean, I wobbled a little here and there. Was that not good enough? Was I borderline? Why aren't they saying "okay, go back to your car" at this point?
Third test: stand on one foot, count "one thousand one, one thousand two, etc." I got up to like 30 before he cut me off. I mean, again, I wobbled a little.
Fourth test (SHIT WHY DO THEY NEED FOUR TESTS I'M TOTALLY FUCKED): a breathalyzer. Fine, all right, I blow into the little tube, my heart pounds as the one cop looks at the other cop, kinda shrugs, SHIT SHIT WHAT DOES IT SAY, and he shows it to me: .014. Now, in case you're not familiar, the legal limit is .08, or like six times what I was. I mean, .014 for a big ol' guy like me is like "I had this one beer but I didn't like it so I threw half of it out."

Now the cop is instantly my buddy. We walk back to where they had Sarah sit on the curb, and the cop and I are chatting. Approximate quote: "The important thing is that you drank responsibly. Keep it up. That'll be good for you, and good for your girlfriend, or wife, or, uh, significant other..."

And in the end it was all kind of fun, because it had a happy ending. I got a good story and a major shot of adrenaline and now I give thanks that I'm not in an oppressive totalitarian state where they could have taken me away at one of these checkpoints. Phew!

There's a new...

Where the Hell is Matt?

Pretty excited about this.

Websitery

Here I go, jumping into the world of having a website. I feel like it'd be a useful thing to learn. And I'd like to build it from scratch, to learn all the concepts involved. I'll host it from my own computer, as I don't see it getting much traffic.

So far, I've installed Apache, and I can navigate to my own site and get a "hello world."
To do:
- actually put something on the site
- figure out how to write code on the site (my test project: make something like the SnS Kudos Awards. Just something where you can nominate people for things, and then vote on them.) I guess you can use php for this? See, I don't even know that.
- maybe learn some Javascript too. Maybe I'll have to do that in the meantime, like in order to use php. Not sure.
- CSS? AJAX? Ruby on Rails? We'll see...
- get a domain name, so you all can see my site too. How do I do that? Do I have to have a static IP address?

If I'm way off base somewhere, let me know. Otherwise, look for something online by me sometime relatively soon!

90% Vegetarian

As of yesterday evening, I'm now 90% vegetarian.

Nits and grits: what does that mean? In any given week, I'll eat meat at most twice. (2 out of 21 meals, just under 10%). By "meat" I mean red meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, and any other animal. As anyone should... "I'm vegetarian but I eat fish" is a cop-out. (I'm also counting chicken/beef/fish stock, gelatin, anything else that is actually animal parts as being meat. I'm being kind of picky, but not super-picky: if meat is an ingredient, it counts as meat, but if there are just rumors that it may or may not contain a trace of an animal byproduct (see: isinglass in Guinness) then I'm not going to worry about it.)

Why? Mostly the environment, but also health. I'll address "health" first, because it's shorter. Vegetables are more healthy than meat. Citation needed, right? I'll go with Mark Bittman first, particularly "1. Forget the protein thing." Most people would agree that vegetables are healthy, but they're still worried about vegetarians because "they're not getting enough protein." Who tells you that you need so much protein? The US FDA? I'd argue that they're not impartial, due to the huge meat lobby. If you want as much protein as a meat eater, you can get it from soy, beans, nuts, wheat gluten, and other high-protein foods. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

If you have other nutritional issues with a vegetarian diet, then we disagree on something more fundamental, and we should hash that out first. Otherwise, I'll say "a diet consisting mostly of whole fruits, vegetables, and grains is the healthiest diet possible" and move on.

Okay, the environment. Blatz blatz blatz further reading. Going vegetarian will solve the food crisis (ps. the world is in one now, we just haven't noticed because Giant Eagle still has plenty of food), the environment, and maybe our oil dependencies all in one. If everyone went vegetarian, that would help the environment more than everyone quitting driving.

Why 90%? Because I want to get across the point that you don't have to go fully vegetarian (and you don't have to be a hippie, if that's not your thing) in order to help! I think (although I don't know) that eating two meals of meat per week is sustainable, while eating seven or fourteen is not. And this way I can still eat some meats that I really enjoy, like fish sushi.

Why set a lower limit? I guess I've been a "flexitarian" for years. But this way I can actually document that I'm doing something measurably good. It will convince me to eat a little less than I used to. And it gives me something to talk about.

Finally, I'd like to say this: you can do it too. Two years ago, I thought it'd be nuts to be vegetarian for a month, until I tried it and found it pretty easy. It's a pretty low-sacrifice way to help the world a lot. If you'd like to join me in 90% (or 100%, or 80%, or whatever you like) vegetarianism, I'd be thrilled.

I got mine!

My grandpa had this saying. We'd be having dinner and my grandma would be serving up spaghetti, and he'd get some, but then, dishing up the rest of the plates, she'd finds that there's not enough for everyone. He would say "I got mine!" and grin. (Then he would share his food with us, obviously.)

I guess it's nothing terribly new. But it's ringing a bell with me, and here's why:

The economy is in the doldrums (don't say there's nothing to do in the dol-drums, it's just. not. true.) and houses are getting foreclosed all over the place. Gas is at $982478/gallon. Industries are shrinking all over, people are getting laid off in their 50's. Social security is nonsense, people are living too long to afford it, but nobody has money to save for retirement. People are killing the environment with their big houses and cars and meat, but it's hard to change.

In the midst of this, I've carved out a nice future for myself: a high-paying job with a top-notch software company. My innate preferences led me to the computer science industry, which happens to have gobs of money flowing out its ears. I can afford a place to live, save for retirement, AND take a few nice trips each year. Furthermore, my lifestyle preference brings me to a clean, safe, beautiful city, where I won't own a car, and I won't be a big drain on the environment. And I like vegetarian food.

What I'm saying is, at least in terms of money, job security, and not being a drain on the environment, "I got mine." And I don't got mine because I've scrimped and saved, I got mine because the things I like are not too dear (sorry, couldn't resist). It's like going to a restaurant and ordering a salad because you like it, while my friend orders a big ol' steak. Everyone says "oohh, you're such a good eater", and I say, well, I'm ordering what I like, just like my friend. Mine happens to be better in a lot of ways, but our motives were the same, so I'm not holier than thou. (but holy cow!)

What to do? Thank the world for (yet another) huge gift? I guess that's the best I can do. It sure makes me think I better do something great with my life, though.

Had a discussion with my parents last night

and with a dramatic subject line like that, you'd think this is some big deal, but not really. We just had a discussion about a lot of things- religion, quantum physics, relativity, gay marriage, drugs- and it was fun. (I guess I talked a lot, but they seemed happy enough to listen, and we debated some things) I like talking to them! I only hope that I don't come across as the reckless kid who thinks everything that his parents say is wrong.

And I totally rolled my dad in a debate, which is rare, as he argues for a living. It was great! The topic: gay marriage. (at least I think I rolled him... we both ended up back where we started: I support gay marriage, he supports civil unions but not marriage, but I felt like I had a pretty convincing argument overall, and the only reason that he still thinks the way he does is that he still thinks the way he does.)

It was mostly all philosophy, little hard data, but I did the best I could. Among my points:
- being gay is not a choice, it's an inherent aspect. My dad disagrees with this point (he thinks it's some genetics and some choice). Me: why would so many people choose it, if it were a choice? Gay people have been persecuted throughout history (correct me if I'm wrong there). Him: it could be a refuge, like some poor people on the fringes of society fall into it because it's an accepting group. (Silent me: have you MET gay people?)
which led to the next point:
- being gay is no less good than being straight. Now, my dad doesn't think being gay is bad, he just doesn't think it's "the kind of thing our society should be promoting." Which means he thinks it's bad, or at least less good than being straight. So I guess we have a fundamental disagreement there too. (If humanity were threatened with extinction and we needed to crank out as many babies as possible, then yeah, I could see how being gay is less good than being straight. But there's overpopulation.)
- Anyway, if you accept my previous two premises (which my dad doesn't), then you have to accept that allowing gay people anything less than straight people is discrimination. Even if it's the same civil rights but a different name (that would be "separate but equal" discrimination).

Okay, this is not brilliant arguing on my part, but I was proud, and I backed my dad into a corner where his logical conclusion was that "gay < straight" and "gay is a choice" were axioms. It's hard to change axioms of your world. I'd think that if he knew more gay people, and heard them tell about how they came to realize they were gay (and so on), he might reverse the latter axiom. The first one is a little tougher to unravel, seeing as it's sorta been drilled into us for thousands of years, and the Catholic church, to which he nominally belongs, seems to be doing nothing to help the issue.

Another highlight of the debate: I was talking about gay people throughout history, Shakespeare, Da Vinci, ...
Dad: Wait, Shakespeare?
Me: Yep. So gay.
Dad: No he wasn't!
Me: Yeah he was. Super gay. Those sonnets? "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" They were for a dude!
Dad: No!
My mom silently nods.
Me: Yep. Definitely gay.

Then I tried to debate drug legalization, where my main argument is "it works in the Netherlands" (which is true) but I guess one axiom-challenging debate in an evening is enough. At any rate, I have to give my parents, and especially my dad, credit for being probably more tolerant than I. We disagree a lot, but I think he thinks I'm less of a rainbow hippie than I think he's a stodgy conservative. (of course, when we argue in a civilized way, I find him a lot less stodgy-conservative.)

Video games, and it turns out Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver are AWESOME

She puts Obama signs in her front yard, and he retaliates with McCain signs. She puts cardboard cutouts of political figures in her house, and sometimes the kids cart them out. This is great.

In other news, I'm looking for a video game. I like video games. I want to play one this summer, while I have some free time. So please, suggest me one!

Rules: It must be for computer, PS2, or SNES, as those are the only systems I have access to. (if it works easily on Linux that would be much better (if I had a dollar for every time some third-party thing "worked easily on Linux" I'd have about four bucks))

Guidelines: I particularly like RPGs, or games with a strong story. The Baldur's Gates were awesome back in the day, and I still think the holy Squaresoft trinity of Final Fantasy 7, FF6, and Chrono Trigger marks the peak of video games forever. If the story's weak, but the gameplay is good, I can dig that too (I was very addicted to Diablo 2 for a long time). I love anything that lets me be a character and pump up my stats and get cool items.

RTS games are okay too; I was into Starcraft and Warcraft 2 for a while, but I don't have leet uber micro.

I do like games that are creative and/or very pretty. Myst/Riven were great, even though the only possible way to play them involved following a walkthrough. SimCity 2000 was killer (heck, even The Sims was fun), and I saw a demonstration of a bunch of indie games called "The Art of Play" that I really enjoyed.

Rhythm games are all right, but I still like Amplitude the best, because it's the only one where the game is better than the gimmick.

Or even a good action/arcade game, like Super Mario World, can suck me in for hours. But I can't deal with three dimensions. (unless I have Wii head tracking)

So, in summary: I would like a game that either is really cool and innovative, or plays like a movie, or lets me collect things. If it's an old ROM or something, that's fine; if it's cutting edge and brand new, that's cool too. Recommend away!

Top 10, count them on your fingers

because everyone loves a list of 10 things.

First: Ireland was great! More details to follow.

Top 10 albums of this list I've been kinda keeping up with:
10. Animal Collective- Feels- I'm so glad this made the top 10. "Grass" and "The Purple Bottle" transport me to some primeval nature-worshipping world. I mean, the whole CD does. Probably another good camping-trip CD.
9. Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?- This grew on me a lot. Each track individually is pretty good, but to listen to the CD straight through, it's a carefully choreographed absolutely-messed-up descent into depression. The "carefully choreographed" is the key; never before have Kevin Barnes and crew sounded so crazy while sounding so planned. His David Bowie stage persona is also intriguing.
8. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- Shake the Sheets- Ted is everything you'd want in a punk rock hero, but he's very clean about it. He's simultaneously a society-fighter and a guy you'd want to hang out with. And this disc rocks straight through, from "Me and Mia" (the most catchy song about eating disorders) to "Walking To Do" (a call to arms for everything!)
7. Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene- Fuzzed-out and spacey, rocking but not indulgent, long-haired but pleasantly poppy, and did I mention Emily Haines (from Metric) provides (awesome, awesome) vocals?
6. The Knife- Silent Shout- This is dark and brooding, icy electronic pop at its best. Wait, did I say that about The Knife before? The difference is that this disc is tighter, more polished, and more nightmarish.
5. The Arcade Fire- Funeral- Ten songs, and only three of them are maybe possibly if-you're-really-in-a-hurry skippable. It's got two halves, first the "neighborhoods" and then the "other songs", which both sound like stellar concept EPs in their own right, but combine into maybe (objectively) a top-5 00's album. Maybe even #1. This is epic.
4. The Go! Team- Thunder, Lightning, Strike- cheerleader vocals? Really? Toss in horns, lite-rap, and a half-gallon of enthusiasm, and you have the second-most-fun record I've ever heard.
3. The Fiery Furnaces- Blueberry Boat- I'm not going to pretend this is head-and-shoulders over anything else they've done, but it's at least head above anything else they've done, and it was so fresh at the time. It felt like prog rock meets the new millennium, but instead of long-haired obnoxious 70's dudes, it was this quirky brother and sister combo. Eleanor provides the pipes, Matt provides the insane genius, and together you get this mash of pirates, private detectives, computer cafes, tropical trees, a train line, and a lost dog. If the Arcade Fire is epic, this is vainglorious.
2. Of Montreal- the Sunlandic Twins- Maybe I like this CD because every song is a keeper. Maybe it's because it's got the poppy hooks to draw you in but also the moody stuff like "Oslo in the Summertime" and "The Repudiated Immortals" to keep you interested over time. Maybe it's the associations I have with being lost in a magical Austrian ski resort with pretty much just this CD to keep me company.
1. Architecture in Helsinki- In Case We Die- Okay, this is it. This is the pinnacle of pop music. This is the standard against which every new pop CD must be judged. Songs like "Wishbone", "It'5", and "The Cemetery" are simultaneously catchy, precious, rocking, and only two minutes long. "Neverevereverdid" and "In Case We Die, Parts 1-4" are like the prog-pop epics of the Fiery Furnaces distilled to their radio-friendly essences. And between all that, they find time for "Maybe You Can Owe Me" and of course "Do the Whirlwind," which has not gotten old in the three years I've known it. This disc is a masterpiece.

And then the honorable mentions: a few discs that, in retrospect, I maybe should have put on this list.
Andrew Bird- Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs, around number 60
Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It In People, around 40
The Pipettes- We Are the Pipettes, maybe as #89 just clinging on to an entry in this list
David Byrne- Music for the Knee Plays, about #70, although maybe that's too generous

Whew! Tune in again in another 4 years and maybe I'll have another top-100 or so list!

My Irish Tour Diary

And you'll forgive me if it's backdated. This blog is for me, not you. I scribbled down all this on a notebook. Here it is, in almost-unedited glory:

Tuesday 5/27
Wednesday 5/28
Tired tired tired.
Galway- McCambridge's grocery/deli, everything is organic, locally sourced.
Busker Browne's- a "cool" new place, eggplant/butternut squash bake, with cheese all over, Gouda?
Roisin Dubh- improv comedy show, awesome.
My suggestion for news headline: "Bears take over space station." Response: "I'd like a gram of whatever he's smoking."

Thursday 5/29 Galway pt. 2 and Salthill, which is crummy.
Sarah: "That must be a fire pit or a grave! But there are no other possibilities."
Christian bookstore/coffeeshop alert! "Refuting evolution" book.
Slept in a lot. The shower was like fighting a boss in a video game.
Dinner at a noodle place- a little bland, not bad.
Oh! Cheesemonger's!
Galway Hooker. It's a beer. Hoppy I guess.
Heard Arcade Fire- Intervention, twice. Their buses have better music.
English guys going "eeyyy."

Friday 5/30 Galway-Sligo
Early bus, etc. Harbour House in middle of industrial area.
Carrowmore tombs- harrowing walk on narrow roads with cars coming at us- but great tombs.
Dinner at Italian place- nice pizzas and wine- Chablis
Americans at tombs didn't let go of legend of Queen Maeve killed by cheese. Or of "get down on your hunkers."
Waiter at dinner- Jamie?- Australian, moved to London, then Sligo, better pace of life, etc. Gave us advice on pubs. Thought us Canadian.

Saturday 5/31 Sligo-Donegal
Met Kate, from Seattle
Went to Farmers' Market- scones, apple-blackcurrant juice, brown bread. Organic/local sure is big here.
Missed morning buses to Donegal, shopped, came back at 2:45.
No buses to Slieve League! Shit! Bike shop man going on vacation! Sad. Italian dinner.
Met Adrina, Silvan, Marianne (spelling?), French, from Limoges, got a ride to the Slieve League

Sunday 6/1 Donegal
Slieve League with French friends. Marianne, driver, cursed much, in French, others laughed. "Gauche!" "Droit!"
Drank Cidona. Still good.
Craft village super closed.
Money/souvenir flap, nice dinner at place that looked like a castle.
Pints and Dom's, Reel Inn (everyone singing "country roads")

Monday 6/2 Donegal-Derry
Donegal Castle, bought terrible comedy CD (Dusty Young. Features a joke: "My brother married way too young. She's Chinese!"
Bank Holiday! Bus to Derry 1:40 or 1:50
No Lough Swilly, tried to track down NW Busways, no luck. Panic, made $3 phone calls, got a car rental from David from Enterprise, instantly returned it.
Ran into Mr. Walsh and Jenna from Galway hostel, from Kamloops, BC
Saddler's House B&B

Tuesday 6/3 Derry-Portstewart
Derry city walls, bus to Portstewart
Bought some breakfast groceries
Dinner at Anchor bar
Cool cemetery in Derry, St. Columb's Cathedral

Wednesday 6/4 Portstewart
Lazy day! Slept in, laundry at laundry place, bought groceries at a butcher and a small grocery store.
Tried honeycomb ice cream. I think it's good!
Cooked dinner- spaghetti with meat sauce- tomato sauce in a jar w/o any crummy ingredients
Watched 5 Fawlty Towers episodes
Lunch at Morelli's I guess? Read the Irish Times.

Thursday 6/5 Portstewart
Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge
Giant's Causeway
Nap
Dinner- pork chops with apples
Walk around, sat on dock
Trad music at Anchor w/ Canadian lady and her daughter
Talked to Scottish guy who was fishing- apparently I have to go to Stirling, St. Andrews, and Glen Cool (spelling?) where there was a massacre and it's all haunted.

Friday 6/6 Portstewart
Dunluce Castle
Bushmills town (cool fruit/vegetable store) and distillery (barrel room closed!)
Fretted about a hat, didn't get it
Omelettes for dinner, ice cream, walk around, put feet in cold water, watched sunset.
Irish dudes waved at us. Actually at a guy behind us.

Saturday 6/7 Portstewart-Slane
Causeway Coast bus ("Antrim Coaster") to Belfast- v. long but nice
Looked for restaurants in LP book, no luck, lunch at "Streat"
Internet would be nice!
Get to Slane, picked up, no good grocery.
Other people at hostel: Cindy, weird Canadian father/daughter

Sunday 6/8 Slane
Ride to Newgrange w/ Joanne, hostel owner, but no ride back.
Met Berndt and Ute (?) who gave us a ride back, with a stop by the grocery (actually just another convenience store)
Tired! Fixed bikes, went to Hill of Slane after dinner at old post office. Cool cemetery and abbey ruins, Cindy met and scared us, make plans to meet at Boyle's pub.
Nap, came back to Boyle's, missed Cindy and the Germans. Talked to Flan the bartender though. And his Derry/Philadelphia friend.

Monday 6/9 Slane
Slept in a bit, rode to Slane, two buses to Tara, long walk b/c of wrong "Tara Cross" stop.
Back to Slane, dinner at Conyngham Arms hotel (only thing open on Mondays)
Back, then to pub (Boyle's again) w/ Cindy, then came back and drank another, good fun.

Tuesday 6/10 Slane-Galway-Ennis
Ran to catch bus, cross-town tram in Dublin, train to Galway to shop. Got rull tired, did not quite buy the right hat.
Got to Ennis, still tired and hungry, got lost, ate in "Poet's Corner" which was full of tourists. Watched soccer: Sweden vs. Greece.
Lady called us "my love" many times.

Post 400, and why the blog challenge has taken a break.

I'm in Ireland! I guess I should have made that more clear. Anyway, I'll be back online (for serious) as of June 11, and in the meantime emailing intermittently.

ps. Ireland is nice.

Exciting! Plus, album list 30-11

For all of us!

30. The Arcade Fire- Neon Bible- I'm still not too sure this is the followup record we were all hoping for. It's got its ups and downs. I like how they've defined their image more, and I'd still vote for them as one of the iconic 00's bands, but "Intervention" and "Keep the Car Running" might be the only songs I enjoy outside the context of the rest of this CD.
29. Air- Talkie Walkie- Despite what my dad would say, a record by two French guys isn't necessarily bad. "Venus" has great chords, "Surfing on a Rocket" and "Cherry Blossom Girl" are catchy and hummable, and "Alpha Beta Gaga" deserves points for Aaron posting a clip of himself playing it on a keyboard and saying "help what is the name of this song?"
28. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever to Tell- Before this disc, I never imagined a CD being so simultaneously loud and sexy. I know few CDs that flat-out rock more than this. Plus, "Maps" and "Y Control" are both classic.
27. Beach House- Beach House- Speaking of moody music, I'm not sure if this record has any discernable vocals. It's like patterns in an oil spill or like drifting in and out of consciousness on a summer day.
26. Crystal Castles- Crystal Castles- My most recent favorite. It's half moody techno and half screamy! Like an angsty teen! But in the context of glitchy bleepy electronic, it sounds, you know, not absurd.
25. The Beatles- Abbey Road- Ram, I'm starting to come around, "Her Majesty" might be worth it. The Beatles at their jokey best.
24. Belle and Sebastian- Tigermilk- These guys are in the vein of the New Pornographers in that I'd really just like one or two discs of their best stuff instead of many CDs of so-so songs. But their best songs are really catchy and happy. Goes well with smoothies.
23. Justice- + ("cross")- Usually I enjoy CDs that go home. Between huge squelchy beats and their decision to release just about every song as a single, these guys (two Frenchmen again!) go big. That's cool.
22. LCD Soundsystem- The Sound of Silver- The first disc was okay, but this one is great. Seven-minute songs, almost minimalist, but with words. And it hit some mainstream success, too!
21. The Earlies- These Were the Earlies- I can't say enough good stuff about this psychedelic, twangy, yet somehow a little electronic CD. If you like the Flaming Lips or any jam band, you might like the Earlies, Of course, they have a little self-restraint.
20. Jens Lekman- Night Falls Over Kortedala- I'm a sucker for Swedes. Cancel that. I'm a sucker for Jens Lekman. His tunes are just so sweet! And yet, they have this hipster irony to them too.
19. Balkan Beat Box- Balkan Beat Box- I guess they have a few CDs. I want them. This blast of Eastern-European and Middle-Eastern-inspired rock tunes made me want to dance, air-drum, and join a brass band.
18. Belle and Sebastian- Push Barman to Open Old Wounds- If a band's going to put out a lot of singles and EPs, like B&S, they darn well better release a compilation disc like this. It's all over the place, but scores a few big hits and a lot of little hits.
17. Portishead- Dummy- Julie's right, this is one of the sexiest CDs of all time.
16. Bloc Party- Silent Alarm- Of all the new British-accented sort of punk bands, you know, Arctic Monkeys, the Vines, Art Brut, and their boring ilk, this album is the only one that gets it right. Maybe it's the driving basslines, maybe it's the guy's voice, maybe it's just overall a little more inventive.
15. Hot Chip- the Warning- I imagine at one point these guys and the Barenaked Ladies were good friends. Then, one Christmas, Hot Chip got a bunch of electric keyboards, and BNL got a major label deal. Hot Chip, however, still rocks.
14. Jens Lekman- Oh You're So Silent Jens- Another in the Belle and Sebastian compilation-of-EP's category, and another in the pretty-boy-sings-sweet-songs category. Did I mention he uses a lot of samples?
13. Liars- Drum's Not Dead- Probably the weirdest CD in my top 15, this raw tribal drum-heavy CD is best enjoyed on a camping trip to an Incan ruin.
12. Mates of State- Bring it Back- They conjure up sunny fields like whoa. Plus, drums and electric organ? That's neat.
11. Beirut- Gulag Orkestar- These guys, however, conjure up autumn days in Eastern Europe with family members and a lot of horns. I don't know how he sounds so European, just being a college kid from the states. Also, he might be younger than me.

I guess I did blog yesterday, sort of, although at 1:15 AM

but here's something for today: Adam Werbach, former president of the Sierra Club.

Got an hour? Listen to this.
Don't? Read this.
Even less time? Try this.

The point, in fewer words than I normally would because I've been sitting at the computer all day, is this: environmentalism needs to get bigger. We need to stop saying "save the polar bears" or "save the bald eagle" and start pushing a holistic way of looking at the world. Werbach calls it a "blue" movement, in addition to the "green" movement, which advocates sustainability (although he doesn't use that word) in everything. Not just the environment. He talks about a lady he knows who was part of some Wal-Mart program to set sustainability goals, and one of hers was to lose weight. (she was very overweight, it wasn't just a vanity thing) She said, yeah, the environment is important, but she is important too, and a healthy environment and an unhealthy her is not a good situation to strive for. Being green is an aspect of it, but it's too narrow-minded on its own.

Want a good political analogy? Look at fundamentalist Christianity. They have a goshdarn unified vision of the future, and they get a lot done. And they're nuts! Imagine what a movement with a unified vision of the future that ISN'T nuts would do!

The recipes are up!

http://danseats.blogspot.com/
Full-text searchable! Arbitrarily taggable! Permanently online! Accessible from anywhere!

This is the best way to put recipes up! I have just entered 111 recipes over three hours! Aaaiiee, today is still my day to blog!

Phantom email pain

You'd think I'd learn by now. This happens every semester. I come home and, all of a sudden, there are no emails anymore. I still sit checking it every four minutes, but nothing ever arrives. To compensate, I employ a steady rotation of checking other websites, blogging, and eating a lot (mostly cereal). This leaves me feeling like hell most of the time. Wait a minute, I have to go check my email.

Umm, still nothing. This makes me cry out for some sort of human contact, like "Hello world, where are your souls on a Wednesday night? Perhaps I can find another person by checking Facebook again. Maybe someone has written something witty on someone else's wall, and that little touch of humanity will tide me over until the morning."

Ooh, naw, hey, maybe I can blame this on the suburbs! Because, of course, once you get here your soul gets sucked out. (they send it to Champps Sports Bar, where it makes a nice dipping sauce for crappy chicken wings.) And "ooh naw hey" sounds like a hippie chant OR a vocal warm-up exercise.

Still no email.

Oh my god eat less meat.

Watch this video. I finally did. It's 20 minutes. Or, if you're at work, read this article.

A few key points:
- The US kills 10 billion animals per year. That's 30 per person.
- If you eat good food, that doesn't make you a vegetarian or a locavore or a hippie or whatever. You can pick labels for yourself if you want, or you can just be someone who eats good food.
- The government is not our ally in eating food that will make us and the planet healthy.
- Experts who know what they're doing (I don't know his sources, sorry) recommend 1/2 lb meat per week. We eat 1/2 lb meat per day.

I watch things like this and kind of want to become vegetarian. Or, here's a nice compromise: a 90% vegetarian. If you eat 21 meals per week (call it 20 for roundness's sake), what about being vegetarian for 18 of them? Then, for those awkward times when you're out with your family or friends and there are no non-meat choices, or when you really crave a steak or a fish, go for it, twice a week.

And, I mean, stop eating junk food. But that's up to you, and it has more of a local effect. If everyone ate Snickers all the time, we'd all get fat, whatever. But if we all eat meat all the time, we'll destroy the world.

My health, my weight, cooking vegetables, and recipes online

Let's go with "cooking vegetables" first. Here's an article. (the gist: cooking food can be better for some foods, like tomatoes, because they gain more lycopene, vitamins, etc.) My counterargument is that it's not all about the vitamins. How can we say something is healthier just because it has more vitamin C or something? Maybe it also loses some vitamin X that is actually ten times as important as vitamin C. At any rate, it does raise my eyebrow again at the Raw Food movement. (I still fully intend to participate for a while, though...)

Okay, my health and my weight: I'm still addicted to cereal, and I just weighed myself today, and came in at 153.

OMG DISCLAIMER: I know weight is not a good measure of health. If you go by BMI, Lebron James is 27.5, which is "overweight." In fact, if you look at two people who look the same, and one is heavier, he's probably healthier, because more of his body is muscle (muscle is denser than fat). SO, maybe your waist size and how good you look in the mirror is a better measure. BUT, weight is the only number I have to track my health, and I am easily swayed by numbers, so I probably put too much stock in it.

OMG DISCLAIMER PART TWO: I know I'm healthy! Skinny even! But I am (probably unnaturally) concerned with staying skinny. I find obesity, or even overweightness, really pretty disgusting, because it's the only outward sign of American-rich-white gluttony that I can see, so if I were overweight, I'd feel like a big slob. At the same time, I realize that many overweight people are that way because of genetics (or some other factor they can't control), and that many overweight people lead healthier lives than I, even. Not really a fair judgment, is it? Well, my conscious mind knows that, and I just have to keep telling my subconscious.

I feel like about 160 is healthy for me (based on what? I dunno... BMI?), and I've gone between 153 and 167 over the last few years. I used to lift weights, which would explain things perfectly: I put on some muscle mass, then I lost it again. Fine. I now eat pretty healthy (except for the cereal thing) and I exercise every day, maybe not enough, but it's a good 20 minutes of hilly biking that I actually do every day, and sometimes more. (occasionally less, like when I'm home in Westlake...) Also, I lost a notch on my belt, and my pants are getting baggier, even. Usually I have a pretty good (although not great) body self-image. So if I can continue the same way for the rest of my life and hold steady in the 150's (plus more if I ever start lifting again), I'm pretty happy with that.

I guess, in summary: fuck you Hollywood for my warped perception of healthy and prejudice against large folks, fuck you Hollywood + the media + society for making me take too much stock in one number, but thank you random chance + genetics for giving me a healthy body so it doesn't really matter.

Last: recipe storage. I found a cool notepad site, Helipad, that lets me write notes plus arbitrary tags, and search through them and sort by tags. It's almost exactly what I asked for. There's also Google Base, which is (uncharacteristically) a little clumsy to create a new document. You can submit a feed, but to have a feed, the items have to already be hosted somewhere. Also, it makes everything public, while Helipad keeps them private. But now I'm thinking the best thing would just be to create a recipe blog! Put each recipe on one post, and you can add tags and search just like on Helipad. Plus you get a free RSS feed, and you can search by date added to see how your tastes change. I guess it makes it public, though, too, but my recipes are no huge secrets. Also, I like the idea of putting them on something Google-hosted, because it's not going anywhere. I'm not sure what Helipad's reliability is like. I'll keep you posted.

Aaaagh, part 2

I have met my match in terms of food squeamishness twice in one day. I don't think I remember the last time that happened. Ewww! Ewwwwwww!

I think, though, someone might someday be able to convince me that this is okay. Still not sure about the Ortolan Bunting. God! What is wrong with you people?!

A list of albums, continued, but maybe a couple sentences per CD now.

50. The Notwist- Neon Golden- Maybe the most melancholy electronic record I own, really movie-soundtracky stuff. Try "Pick Up the Phone"; it's not sad, so much, it's just so melancholy.
49. Interpol- Turn On the Bright Lights- Tracks like "Obstacle 1" and "Obstacle 2" prove that Interpol was really only a great band when they were writing songs with "obstacle" in the name (but boy do they dress snazzy!).
48. Outkast- Speakerboxxx/The Love Below- "Hey Ya!" may be the best song released in my lifetime. These guys are the Beatles, or at least the U2, of hip-hop.
47. Orbital- the Middle of Nowhere- This CD alone got me started into serious techno. Thanks, Magma Books in London, for playing it. If you think techno is all blips and bleeps with no soul, listen to "Otono" or "Nothing Left" off this album.
46. The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- Thank you to my friends for helping me realize that the Beatles are not just another oldies relic, and that they make some of the best music ever. "A Day in the Life" may be the best song not released in my lifetime.
45. Tally Hall- Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum- much as I will talk about these guys as the next Beatles, this record isn't there yet. It's too patchy and boy-band-ish. But it totally deserves this spot for memories of many Tally Hall concerts, and all my friends like them.
44. Tegan and Sara- the Con- Catchy and innovative pop sung by two girls. How could I NOT like it?
43. Sufjan Stevens- Come On Feel the Illinoise!- I don't like folk, I don't like neo-folk or alt.country or singer-songwriter or anything without some sort of electronic amplification, but I mean Sufjan is just so dreamy.
42. Grand Buffet- Five Years of Fireworks- Not so much for the CD, as these guys are terrible recorded, but incredible live. I have many happy memories of Grand Buffet concerts. This may also be the only place that Will's, Sarah's, and my musical tastes overlap.
41. The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots- A concept album that doesn't suffer from concept album syndrome or from Flaming Lips syndrome. Every song is solid, dystopic, sci-fi, and yet very human.
40. The Beatles- Rubber Soul- Maybe the most consistently good Beatles album, because the only songs I ever skip are "Michelle" and "Girl".
39. The Beatles- Revolver- I'm so divided on this album. Huge highs! Eleanor Rigby, And Your Bird Can Sing, Taxman! But also Yellow Submarine? Come on, guys!
38. Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation- Finally finally got into these guys and claimed a bit of indie cred (and shared taste with my Uncle Jim) right before I saw them play this album in Barcelona. If you're a child of the 00's, think of them as the pre-Broken Social Scene and listen to this album five times and maybe the whole fuzzy thing will sink into your head as it has mine.
37. Los Campesinos!- Hold On Now, Youngster- The last good pop record I've picked up, it's full of yelps, but worth your time anyway.
36. The Knife- Deep Cuts- If it were just "Heartbeats" fifteen times, this disc would still be worth the money. As it is, it also includes "You Take My Breath Away", as well as bits of icy weirdness like "You Make Me Like Charity" and (lol) "Hangin' Out."
35. Radiohead- In Rainbows- Here is the one part in my list where I cheated, I left
34. Radiohead- Kid A- three Radiohead albums in a row to avoid actually
33. Radiohead- OK Computer- categorizing or work in this arbitrarily constructed ORDERS OF ORDERS WHAT IS THIS MONUMENT we are all organized Vaguely ominous PORTENts masking ambiguous CONtent we hope that you choke
32. Talking Heads- Remain in Light- Well I love these guys, David Byrne's voice is singular, their jerky style is just how I dance, they're nerds but quality musicians, Pitchfork says this is their best album, and it contains cool rhythms AND "Once in a Lifetime".
31. Junior Boys- So This Is Goodbye- Speaking of icy techno, these guys are too cool for school. Oddly, they remind me of lazy warm Maastricht days.

Animal rights protesters are pansies

Kicking and screaming about foie gras? Wusses. Making a fuss about battery-farmed chickens? Lame. See, REAL badass animal rights activists protest against Ortolan Buntings.

(humor aside, ewww. I'm no animals-have-feelings-too kind of hippie, and I'm all for innovative food, and these birds probably still suffer less than battery chickens, but ewww! That is like something out of a horror movie. That is The-Cook-The-Thief-His-Wife-and-Her-Lover-esque cruelty. I mean, it's cruel even if animals don't have feelings too.)

Also, this is not a joke.

Gift ideas

The blog challenge: I'm losing already! Well, we can start it today if you like. I blame family and graduation.

And before I dash off to the grocery, as I am wont to do, let me throw this out there as my first blog challenge post. It's appropriate around now, and if you know me, you'll know why (hint: it's my birthday in about a week!).

Preface: I don't think this post makes me particularly self-centered; I think it makes me conscious of my role as a consumer in this world. I don't enjoy the custom of gifts, as it guilts people into buying things that other people do not want. But I understand the desire of others to commemorate me on this anniversary of me popping out of my mother's womb into a world that might self-destruct before I do.

Things to get me that I will like:
- experiences, preferably with you. Tickets to a concert that we both like would be awesome! Or take me out to dinner or lunch, I would certainly enjoy that. Or for a drink, or for a mid-afternoon snack, or to a folk festival, or a lecture or artistic or comedic experience. Even if it's cheap, and especially if I wouldn't normally go to it.
- consumable things that I like to consume. Examples include beer, tea, uh, fancy liquor, or any packaged food with a different language on it. Examples do not generally include wine, although I can't say I'd mind. I will think of you as I consume this item. Then I will recycle the packaging.
- things I need. Of course, you probably don't know what I need, and if I really needed something, I'd buy it myself, which leads us to:
- gift cards. For stores I like. Which are... well... almost by definition, not national chains. (there are exceptions: Chipotle, REI, uh, and probably others...) Or even unofficial gift cards: you could give me some money and say "buy some clothes with this," and I would, and that would be nice. Or if you said something that I didn't want, like "buy a new watch with this", I would just buy something else and smile and lie to you. But then we don't have the waste of you buying me a watch that I'll never use.
- nothing! You can buy me nothing! I will not be offended, because I am officially asking for nothing! You could put some nothing in a (reusable) box; then I would be thrilled because you would be the first person to actually listen when I say I want nothing!
- or of course, something that you put a lot of time into, with some meaning. Those sentimental sort of gifts are always nice.
- last but not least, cash is actually fine. I won't think you thoughtless. I will think, "you don't have to get me cash" and maybe I would spend it taking you out for an ice cream cone. Everybody wins!

Really. Make the world a better place. Or at least, refrain from making the world a worse place. Stop waste. Please. I love you anyway without you adding another THING to a landfill and another debt to your credit card.

Email records, and the blog challenge.

Hey. First question: I have a bunch of old emails from my times at CMU. I'm transitioning to my Gmail address. I'd like to keep my email records around (they're handy to check sometimes, like "what was that dude's email address?" or "did I ever send that info to that guy?"). Ideally, I'd just forward them all to my Gmail account and archive them. But there are like 15000 of them. Does anyone have a solution for this problem?

Second: I aim to post one post per two days. This is to keep pace with Sarah. (You may know her. If you do, she links to her blog on her Facebook account. If you're just a random dude or creepy internet person, then you wouldn't know her, and that's the point.) She wants to write more. Sort of like a guy who runs along with you while you're training for a marathon, I will blog with her, to keep her to the pace of one post per two days also. Plus, I wouldn't mind writing more.

Guidelines: I must post once every other day, starting tomorrow. A day is 12am to 11:59pm. It can't just be "here's a link, look at it"; there must be some substance or creativity to it. It doesn't have to be anything deep or particularly good. I'm not the writer here, she is. And besides, she doesn't have to write anything particularly deep either, she just wants to write something regularly, because apparently that's important if you're a writer.

(if you'd like to join in the blog challenge, maybe that would be fun! all my friends' blogs that I know about, I like, so I wouldn't mind if you posted more.)

And I'm first, and it starts tomorrow. Whoo-ee!

One part nostalgia, one part honest recommendations, one part Did I mention I like making lists? ... #88.3-51

Okay, this is dumb and self-indulgent, and it's not even really a top-n list of ANYTHING, I guess technically it's a list of "albums I have listened to at Carnegie Mellon that I really like" or some sort of desert-island itunes library... but take it for what you will, I liked making this list, and it serves a couple of honest purposes:
- for my own memory
- maybe you haven't heard these albums, and would like to check them out
- I sure do like making lists.
I put CDs on here if they had a big product of quality * how much I like them * the memories they bring back.

Without further ado, #88.3 to #51, and I'll limit myself to one sentence each, tops:
88.3. The Shins- Chutes Too Narrow- I didn't want to put the Shins on here at all because they're so blah, but at one time I did really like "Kissing the Lipless" and "Saint Simon" and maybe I still do.
88. The Field- From Here We Go Sublime- Maybe the techno-iest of my techno indulgences, this minimalist repetitive disc is at once relaxing, trance-inducing, and dancey.
87. Prefuse 73- One Word Extinguisher- Somehow all the glitches and the rapping and the rhythms all come together in some jangly mess.
86. Mylo- Destroy Rock and Roll- WRCT rec from Danny Orenstein, I think, this is a little cutesy and a lot infectious dance pop music.
85. Steve Goldberg- Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies- more for the memories, thanks to Will recording/mixing this disc, but it's still good if not excellent pop, and from a CMU student!
84. Bat for Lashes- Fur and Gold- Sometimes I love beautiful icy female voices over dark, brooding, backgrounds (see: Portishead), but I can't fall in love with the whole disc because it's a little slow.
83. Tom Vek- We Have Sound- "A Little Word In Your Ear" sounds classic already, also memories of German class with Prof. Hallstein for some reason.
82. Voxtrot- Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Wives- if this were a full-length of the same quality, it'd be much higher.
81. The Rapture- Pieces of the People We Love- somehow rises above most of the British-sounding dance-punk bands, and I could listen to the opening four bars of "get myself into it" on repeat for literally minutes.
80. Beck- Guero- Hasn't aged as well as other Beck albums, but this second dose of Odelay hit me at the right time and struck a chord, if you will.
79. The New Pornographers- Electric Version- I still think, if these guys made just one album of their best songs instead of like four okay power-pop albums, it might ascend, body, soul, and liner notes, into heaven.
78. The National- Alligator- Thank god somebody is singing a pop/rock CD with a powerful bass voice, plus these guys rock and I kinda wish I put them higher.
77. The Prodigy- Their Law: the Singles 1990-2005- now THIS is energizing, and it makes me wish I got into them in the 90's instead of just hearing and ignoring "Firestarter."
76. The Flaming Lips- Zaireeka- I've listened to it once, and it was last Friday, but it's a cool experiment, and props to them for making a CD that forces you to get people together and have an event.
75. BOAT- Songs That You Might Not Like- Unnoticed by others and overrated by me, this sloppy pop CD still brings me back to Florida and airports.
74. The Beta Band- The Three E.P.'s- Hey, can we all get all excited over "Dry the Rain" again?
73. Pixies- Doolittle- Ram and Aaron, I'm sorry this is not in the top 10, but I think I'm just a half-generation too young to REALLY get into them, which is not saying I can't kinda get into them.
72. The Books- Lost and Safe- This one's for Daniel Dewey, and I have often wished I had an ipod with this CD on it so my average walk in the park could become a movie with soundtrack.
71. Sigur Ros- Takk...- And this one (along with Agaetis Byrjun) has made me wish I were on the side of a grand mountain overlooking rolling green hills on a cloudy day that threatened storm; fairies optional.
70. Gil Mantera's Party Dream- Bloodsongs- For the experience of seeing them live, which is one of those things I will probably never forget, for better or worse.
69. Joan of Arc- Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain- Thanks, Joe McD, this made my sophomore year a little more dark and twisted in a sort of immature way, and I think that's all a compliment.
68. The Unicorns- Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?- I can't point to when exactly it wormed its way into my consciousness, but I do know at some point I heard "Jellybones" in Skibo, and I thought "what song is that, because I love it!"
67. Ratatat- Ratatat- This bit of crunchy electronics is so Sam McUmber, and Sam McUmber is a cool dude, and this CD is a cool CD.
66. Pavement- Slanted and Enchanted- Mostly, for the indie cred.
65. Girl Talk- Night Ripper- Woo Pittsburgh, and his mashups are spot-on, and I want to be him (except without all the drugs).
64. Sly and the Family Stone- the Essential Sly and the Family Stone- Hi, I'm white, I like the poppy upbeat SatFS but I can't get into "There's a Riot Going On", and by the way, thanks Adam Jaffe.
63. !!!- !!!- Still impossible to Google, these guys were my first favorite dance-punks, and I didn't even know it.
62. Flotation Toy Warning- Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck- Well-crafted, still brings up the hopelessness feelings of Godspeed! you Black Emperor in about 1/3 the time, maybe only because of the theremin.
61. Various Artists (as selected by Hot Chip)- DJ Kicks- I would love to make a CD like this, which not only flits from Hot Chip to obscure German techno to "I Got a Man" by Positive K seamlessly, it makes it seem like they couldn't go together any other way.
60. The Go! Team- Proof of Youth- The reviews all said their stuff lost its edge and this CD was just more of the same, but I love that same, and it's all worth it for the (instrumental) pre-chorus of Keys to the City, and have you seen them live?
59. The Fiery Furnaces- Bitter Tea- Tough to pick out a second FF album, but this one does get me feeling the worldwide travel and Southeast Asian jungles, and ooh, it sounds like that witch's hut scene from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 looks.
58. The Avalanches- Since I Left You- Will probably go down in history better than Girl Talk, as it's more polished, but I still envy all-samples records.
57. My Bloody Valentine- Loveless- I know I'm supposed to LOOOVE this pioneering groundbreaking genre-defining shoegaze record, but really, I only love it.
56. Eels- Electro-Shock Blues- I still say these guys are a little hit-or-miss, but it's one of a few CDs that really brings back the slanty shanty and summer 2006 for me.
55. Stars- Nightsongs- Also a little hit-or-miss, the hits are the kind of music that almost makes me cry, and have you heard their cover of "This Charming Man"?
54. TV on the Radio- Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes- Better than Cookie Mountain, this disc is one of few that I feel is really yelping and reaching and creating very primal sounds instead of staying within a safe, distanced indie niche.
53. Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend- overrated, sure, but I like it, and Sarah likes it, and if for no other reason, it deserves a spot on this list because it will always bring me back to spring 2008.
52. The B-52's- Cosmic Thing- maybe I'm cheating on this one, because my parents used to play it when I was a kid, but when I rediscovered it, I dove in headfirst to one of the most fun records I will ever hear.
51. Gnarls Barkley- St. Elsewhere- mainstream, sure, but unlike most flash-in-the-pan pop stars, these guys are the real deal, and I hope they go down in history as one of the highlights of the '00s.

The List Is Coming.

I made a list of the top 88.3 albums of my college career. Beej thought this was silly. Obviously he doesn't understand my really great love of both music and making lists.

I'm going to write something about them, though, so I won't put it up just yet. But soon!

Why do I keep reading Consumerist...

oh yeah, it's for links to stuff like this: a brilliant skewering of yogurt commercials.

(consumerist.com being a big ol' blog full of people writing in and complaining about Best Buy, Verizon, any and all airlines, Wal-mart, etc., complete with comments about how much the companies suck. I started reading it, thinking it'd be the kind of thing I like, and sometimes they have good advice on how to get your issue fixed. But a lot of times it's just whining. But then, well, sometimes they have funny things like this.)

I quite unwittingly gave a great gift the other day

The year's ending, and my research project is wrapping up, so I wanted to get a gift for my advisor, Noah. He's been great all year. It's been a pleasure working with him, even all those weeks that I came in and said "I didn't do anything last week" or "Oh my god I'm a failure help." I'm still bewildered by research and grad school, but everyone's got to start somewhere, and thanks to his moral support, I'm not ruling out grad school for the future. In fact, I sort of imagine that someday I'll say "It's time to go back to school." Or maybe not, we'll see, but I feel like maybe someday I could do it.

Anyway, I wanted to give him a gift for all his support. I know he likes wine, and his main computer is called "malbec." I worked with this computer for MONTHS before I learned that the other computers were called "cabernet" and "chardonnay" and stuff and I realized "malbec" was a wine. So I figured a bottle of Malbec would be a nice gift. I picked one out at the ol' state-run wine and spirits shop, pretty much at random, although they only had like three Malbecs and this one was the prettiest bottle, so okay, cool. And it looked like it was an okay bottle of wine, although I don't know from wine. I figured maybe it would be good, or maybe it'd just be a joke, "ha ha, malbec, like the computer."

He sent me an email to say thanks for the wine, and that it should age a few years, so he'll keep it safe until then. I thought, okay, haha, I bought a crummy wine that might be good in a few years. But then I thought again, and I realized: that's awesome! Someday in a few years, he'll be picking out a bottle of wine, and he'll say "wow, this malbec was from Dan! I remember that project we did together, back in my early days of professorship and his early days of undergraduate research! I wonder how he's doing now!" or something. I mean, not that remembering me is any big treat, or I'm a great gift giver (like I said, it was accidental), but I'd love it if someone gave me a time-capsule gift like that.

(okay, not wine, because like I said, I don't know from wine, and (unlike everything else) I don't particularly care to, but like whiskey or something. Anything that should age, and is then consumable. What a cool gift!)

But yeah. My research project, at least my part, is done. I'm happy about that. I'm not too proud of it, but it's something, and undergrads don't usually come up with earth-shattering results anyway. Thanks again, Noah, it's been a good experience, and I couldn't have done it without you.

Dear The Media: please stop.

I've got this little Google News feed on my home page, it gives me the five biggest stories aggregated from papers around the world each day. And every day since Monday, there's been something about the Josef Fritzl story.

Granted, it's pretty much the most fucked-up thing in the world. If you haven't heard about it by now, and you're just reading the article for the first time, I'll give you a minute to get over the "oh my god" factor involved in this case. It's terrifying, I mean, it's one of those "true life is worse than horror movies" sort of stories. Eeurgh.

BUT! Does it deserve a place in the news? No! It's a case of a few people. This guy should get sent to jail for life without parole. The victims should all get all the medical, therapeutic, emotional, and educational help possible. A few other loose ends need to be connected: apparently he was a convicted sex offender and then he adopted a kid; how did that happen? and so on. And then the case should be closed. Just like the OJ Simpson case, just like every other macabre story the media drums up.

What's the rationale behind plastering this story on the front pages of newspapers worldwide? If you have an argument that it's not just sensationalism, let me know. The world is fearful enough without these awful tales lurking in your mind. And poor Austria: this story is being reported as the "Austria dungeon case" or whatever. Will tourism to Austria take a hit? Will people start thinking of this beautiful country (I've been there, it's beautiful, and the people are friendly too) as "the kind of place where people lock their incestuous families in horrific dungeons"? Crime there is no worse than anywhere else; in fact, judging by these stats, it seems like a safe place. (the only high rates are for suicides and rapes, both in small 20-country studies, and data for rapes tends to be unreliable, I guess)

The poor family too! I'm sure they're keeping the media away from them, but meanwhile people are gawking at the whole thing. In coordination with Julie Brown's plea to leave Britney Spears alone, I'd like to ask everyone to leave this poor family alone. Seriously.

And do not be afraid of scary guys locking incestuous families in horrific dungeons. It happened once. Be more afraid of getting hit by a car. You run the risk of THAT every day.

Bar: did they beat me to it?

Think bars
Click on "think5". Try the "red berry" one. Read the ingredients list: vegetable powders, fruit concentrates, "soy lecithin" (still don't know what that is), trendy stuff like spirulina and green tea extract, and some olive oil and salt and stuff. Seems good to me. What's the catch? Maybe:
- all these powders. I assume they just dry the vegetables and then grind them up. If that's all there is to it, seems fine with me.
- the fruit concentrates. Think about apple juice from concentrate, which really doesn't have much of any nutritional value (that is to say, it doesn't have much whole apple, just peeled apple mashed up and concentrated). Is that what's going on here?
- the dreaded "natural flavors" (could be anything) at the bottom.

Still, it sounds like they are doing what I aimed to do with the Bar project (which I'll keep working on). I'd buy it. I wouldn't replace all my vegetables and fruit intake with it, but I'd eat it instead of some other bar. Most energy/protein/nutrition bars are either mostly grains, nutritional-sounding sugars (like "brown rice syrup" and "date extract"), or some weird "soy protein isolate" that tastes like hell and is probably not even healthy. So I'd go for a mostly-fruit-and-vegetables bar.

Vonnegut quotes, part 2985073

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

A tricky little catch for hipsters, eh? If your character is all ironic, look out! While you're running around in fields pretending to be a hippie, maybe you are becoming one. Or say you dress all slick and talk about businesses all the time, maybe you're on your way to tooldom. Or if you talk about John Deere and hot dogs and the good ol' US of A... just sayin'.

There's a good side of this, too: if you pretend to be something good, you will become it. Say you want to be a really cool guy. Act like you are one. If you really are, then you're just being yourself; if not, you will become one soon enough. Or if you want to be an outdoorsman, or a scientist, or an artsy sort of person, or a DJ, or whatever. You can be whatever you want, and it's really easy: just pretend to be it. That's neat.

In other news, speaking of being a DJ, I just played my last WRCT show today. How sad! I like talking, and especially talking to potentially hundreds of people, and especially talking AND forcing my musical choices on potentially hundreds of people.

I tried to make a "best of CMU 2004-2008" playlist, but I don't know how well it turned out. So I promised to make a "best bands that I've heard as my music collection grew to ten times its size over these four years", a "top N" best songs/albums/whatever. I guess albums, I should go with albums. It'll be up in some number of days, maybe a few days, that's all I can promise right now. (life is so hard for us!)

(that's sarcasm. life is easy.)

How to travel, how to travel, how to travel...

I guess what I want is experience. Here's my internal debate:

If you're going somewhere, should you do a lot of research, plan your trip out day by day, book your places beforehand? I guess so, right? If not, you'll likely show up and find nowhere left to stay, and know nothing about the place. Still, there's something unsatisfying about that answer, though. It seems so forced. Seems like you'll end up in the same old tourist traps, while some other dude is just rummaging his way around and doing crazy cool things.

But what things? How? Odds are that dude will just get lost or spend some nights sleeping out in a field or something. Lame. Yeah, plan it all out. Just because you planned out where you'll be each day doesn't make the trip any less "real."

But it does, it's all fake fake fake fake. It's so rich-white-person.

Shut up! This whole conversation is rich-white-person! The idea of traveling for fun is rich-white-person! Or at least stuffwhitepeoplelike.com . Really. Quit your existential mumblings and have a good trip. Whatever way that means. Jesus Christ, you can't even take a vacation without having a mental meltdown.

Yeah, but there's no prestige in a holiday spent kicking back and relaxing. If you're going to travel, you have to travel right.

Wait, are we even arguing anymore? What's the problem here?

I'm not sure. Thank you all for reading this post! I'm so tired, I don't even know what I mean at all anymore! What the shit!

Obama actually said...

Candidates make speeches for WWE Raw

He ACTUALLY SAID "Do you smell what Barack is cooking?" ! Hahahahahahahahaha! Granted, both speeches looked pretty cheesy on paper. And probably were cheesy in reality. But I can't believe he actually said "Do you smell what Barack is cooking"!

Well, he's got my vote right there.

One minor annoyance

I can't seem to find my mouse. I have no idea where it could have gone. This is a most intriguing mystery! Did anyone randomly borrow it this weekend out of my room? Grubb, did you pee on it?

Thank you for everything, etc. etc. etc.

So when I said last weekend was the best weekend ever, I was lying, because THIS weekend was the best weekend ever. Thanks to my old SnS friends who came in from out of town; thanks to Dan for coming in from Cleveland; thanks to CMU for giving us time off to have a carnival.

Thanks to the hundreds of you who cheered and laughed as NPP opened for Human Giant, and overpowering the drunk people who yelled mean things at us. Thanks to Gerrit and Will for being in the show; thanks to the rest of the Players for being flexible with everything. Thanks to Aaron for heroically feeding 50 people a Seder dinner without as much as a dishwasher or garbage disposal.

The list goes on and on, but right now I'm going to Waffle House with Gerrit, Will, Grubb, and Mike Yin. Thanks to you guys too!

Thanks to Ram for the sermon from afar. Thank you for everything; I have no complaints whatsoever. If you say something enough, it becomes true.

Argmax

There's a really great function that sneaks in when you start learning about AI. It's called "argmax" and they throw it in there without even really explaining it as if it were entirely self-explanatory. It means "the value of the variable that makes the expression maximum." So, for example: (and sorry about lack of typesetting)

argmax_x -(x-3)² = 3

because the way to maximize -(x-3)² is by putting in 3 for x. If you take the "max" instead, it'd be 0:

max -(x-3)² = 0

because any negative squared thing is never going to get bigger than 0.

But the great thing about argmax is that you can use it in contexts that are not quite so mathy. If p is a product:

argmax_p price(p)

means "the price of the most expensive product." But even better, you can talk about it even when you have no freakin' clue how to evaluate it. Let c be a career among all the possible careers you could take:

argmax_c happiness(your life, your family, your friends, your belongings, c)

and that represents the career that will make you the happiest, given everything else. Okay, so what's this all leading up to? If you have a group of people and they want to do a thing, but they want to do different things, you should do the thing that makes the most people the happiest. If every person i assigned an enjoyment value e_ij for each thing j that he/she wanted to do, then just add up the enjoyment values and take the argmax.

argmax_j sum_i e_ij

This is exactly Beej's "voting game." If there are two choices of things to do, A and B, and there are three people, p1, p2, and p3, and the votes go like this:
      A    B
p1  3    4
p2  5    1
p3  2    4
you add this all up, and thing A gets 10 points and thing B gets 9 points, so you should do thing A. Even though p1 and p3 would rather do thing B, p2 REALLY wants thing A, so thing A is the thing to do.

This is a great algorithm! It leads to maximal total enjoyment, right? So that's cool. p1 and p3 can't complain, because if they had really wanted to do thing 2, they could have given it a higher score. If they really didn't want to do thing 1, they could have given it fewer points.

But there seems to be one small flaw: p1 and p3 might be a little irritated at this; after all, they're the majority! They might perceive p2 as "pushy." And they'll feel like p2 "owes" them something; they're caving to him this time. Maybe next time p2 should let p1 and p3 do what they want, even if p2 wins the voting game again.

HOW TO SOLVE THIS?
One solution: everyone can only use a total of 10 points per game. When someone wins, everyone else gets "bonus" points equal to what they voted but lost. So in the example above, p1 gets 7 and p3 gets 6 (p2 gets 0). This represents what p2 "owes" them for winning. They p1 and p3 are sad now, but will be more likely to be happy in the future.

This is not great because that's a lot of remembering. But I feel like, over time, everyone will be optimally happy.

ANOTHER OPTION:
p2 wins and everyone else chill the fuck out!

EITHER WAY:
play the voting game, deal with the results, and don't harbor resentment about it.

THIS MEANS:
Beej, I'm officially a convert (although maybe we should allow values up to 10 to allow more variation. Or maybe it's fine as is).

I need to read articles like this more often

The Rebel Sell
Maybe it's because I just drank some (Starbucks brand) coffee, but as I'm reading this article, I keep going "Yeah! Right on!" It's long, but worth the read. It's also 6 years old, I guess, but still rings pretty true to me.

There are evils in the world brought on by big corporations, and we're in a world driven by consumption, sure. But buying a lot of things won't stop it. Even if you're buying underground music CD's, clothes from REI, or Guatemalan handcrafts. It's the same "keeping up with the Joneses" in a 2008 form.

And my holding this opinion makes me more counter-cultural, because I'm being so much more counter-cultural than you, I'm being counter-counter-cultural. Booyah.

Thank you for everything, etc. etc.

This weekend has been fantastic.

Friday night we had our improv show with Irony City. It may have been the caffeine, but I think it couldn't have gone over better. We were really darn funny for our set, and I kept feeling like I was walking this line of "oh my god this show is great don't fuck up" and then I DIDN'T, and neither did anyone else, which is weird because that's not a feeling you want to have while you're improvising, you want to have the feeling of "it's okay, I can do whatever", but somehow it worked out. Then Irony City was really funny, as always. I really like their troupe, they all have strong points, especially Greg and Atom, who are geniuses. And our combo time was the best of both worlds.

Thank you if you came to our show. You made it the best. Improv is so much more fun when there are 45 people (literally) cheering you on. Good show all around.

Then we had our British party, and it was so fun too! Thanks Greg for inspiration and a meat pie, thanks to all of you who came just for being there. I can't say what made it such a great atmosphere, but just every conversation I was in, I kept thinking "I care a lot about this person and I'm glad to be hanging out with him/her."
Plus, drinking lots of Pimm's and lemonade and Brandies Alexander is always a classy and fun thing to do.

Saturday night too, going to Mad Mex with Sarah, Beej, Daniel, and Hannah, because why not? It was great! Again, a small group of close friends is about the best thing one can ask for. And $5 good food never hurts.

Today I sat at the fence all day. Uneventful, but somewhat enjoyable nonetheless.

And somewhere in this weekend, I finished the 11-411 project, about question answering for wikipedia articles, and I got that little rush of excitement from finishing a program and I remembered that I LIKE what I do, and also that I'm not terrible at it. I'm the luckiest guy in the universe.

And then this is really kind of funny: bash.org
and there's one for CMU, which is a little eerie because I know some of these people.

This blog is becoming more and more like a digg account every day

Or a digg page or whatever you call it, one of those pages where you just list links that you like. But here is a link that I like:
Michael Pollan explains it all
(warning: long article. You don't have to read it all, just read what you want.)

If someone said to me "lay out your beliefs on food", I would probably just link to this guy, because he says a lot of things that I agree with and he presents them in a well-formulated argument, which is something that I haven't done since 12th grade English class. (We scientists lose our ability to write, you humanitarians lose your ability to do math. Not that that's a good thing.)

Also he's so damn reasonable, which is something I really value in an arguer. I'm glad he never strays into saying "meat is murder" or "you people buying your frozen dinners are wrong" or "McDonald's is killing the environment" or whatever because that would alienate his opponents, and we won't get anything done if we can't have a reasonable conversation.

Bwa-hahahaha

This merited a news story? Also, awesome.

Shit, philosophy time again

Okay, a quote that's rattling around my brain:
"If you're only happy based on your life circumstances, you're not really happy at all."
or,
"If the only things that make you happy are temporary and fleeting (your work, your possessions, even your friends), your happiness is really only temporary and fleeting."
or,
"If you're only happy when things are going well, you're doing it wrong."
or something to that effect.
Is that something real that a super-enlightened Buddhist guy (or other happy person) has said or would say? Or am I making this up?

My Ecuadorian Food Diary

Thought you might enjoy this. I mean, maybe not, whatever. In a sense, it's sort of like a toothbrushing diary (4/8/08: used Colgate Total, spearmint flavor. 4/9/08: Colgate Total spearmint and floss. 4/10/08: Aquafresh!) but in another sense, it's neat, because I ate a lot of cool fruits.

Food in Ecuador, and there was a lot of it, recounted with more details than you care about, but missing some foods that I would like to have remembered, and also missing guinea pigs, because we did not eat them

Saturday (3/8/08 if you're counting)
Lunch/dinner in Quito:
Crispy roasted corn (some salty, some sweet; our guide said they called them "dogshit")
empanadas with a pink spicy sauce
lomo fritado (pork)
hominy (I think)
potato (or maybe plantain) patties
avocado
salsa-type stuff
cooked fig in syrup with some bland cheese
red wine
naranjilla and tomate de arbol fruits and their juices
Snack on the way to Muisne: Chifles (plantain chips, in a bag, from a gas station)

Sunday 3/9
Breakfast:
Arepas
Papaya
Pineapple (which was white, not yellow at all, and not super-sweet, but pretty good)
Lunch:
Rice, beans
Fried mahi mahi nuggets
Carrot/cucumber/lettuce salad
Fried plantains
Somewhere out on a trail: Guava (or something. Andres insisted it was different from guayaba, which we call guava. Some sleuthing only reveals that what we ate may be this? But it came in a long pod.)
Dinner:
Rice
Chicken
Cauliflower and carrots salad
Some donutty things with chocolate sauce

Monday 3/10
Breakfast/walking through jungle:
Fresh coconuts and coconut water (which is really good)
Pineapple
Cherimoya (also awesome, tastes like yogurt)
Rice
Shrimp
Instant coffee (ignorant I thought that they grew and drank a lot of coffee in Ecuador. Not so! And the coffee they drink is all instant, or boiled down hardcore so you have to dilute it to drink it.)
Guanabana (aka Soursop, and totally different from Guava or Guayaba.)
Lunch:
Rice
Beef stew with peppers
Plantain pancakes with chocolate
Lettuce leaves
Dinner: I forgot

Tuesday 3/11: No idea! Sick all day!

Wednesday 3/12: Sick most of the day! Had some shrimp and a cassava thing for dinner.

Thursday 3/13:
Breakfast:
Some kind of very salty omelet
Other pancakey thing
Lunch (at a lady's house in Muisne):
Soup with beef, cassava, etc. in broth
Fish in coconut lime sauce (awesome)
Rice
Dinner: forgot

Friday 3/14:
Breakfast:
Some kind of banana pancakes
Maracuya (passion fruit) juice
Lunch: Ceviche with shrimp, lime, tomato, hot peppers, some herb. Possibly the best thing I ate the whole trip.
Rice
Plantain chips
Dinner (on beach):
Fried fish
Rice, beans
Plantain patties
Coke
Sometime throughout the evening:
A few caipirinhas. (apparently popular in Ecuador as well as Brazil.)

Saturday 3/15: don't really remember.

Sunday 3/16: a huge breakfast with no rice or bananas in sight.

Ads for cake mix in Argentina

like this one are much better than ads for cake mix here. (plus I'll buy anything if it's got an ad by AiH. Oh wait, not a Sprint phone.)

A few things, no theme, unlike my radio show

1. If you're not aware, my radio show is on Mondays 2-4pm on WRCT 88.3fm (or at wrct.org). I call it "special topics in modern pop music" because I want to try to educate listeners a little bit about what I know about pop music and its various sub- or related genres. My former show was called "I will tell you the names of the songs that I play". I'm big on the college radio station as music education, in addition to just fun music, because you can get out your ipod and play just fun music. (or Japanese noise rock, or whatever) But it's up to us flesh-and-blood DJs on a real-life radio to try to expose you to the newest and best.

This week I played acousticky folky singer-songwriter stuff. (I didn't like it. But other people might.) I played about 3 songs, then got on the air and said what I thought about them and who they were. (might have been Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power, or something) A guy called in and said he really appreciated how I told the listeners who was playing and made some kind of connection to the music, because most DJs just play music for an hour. I felt like my four years as a WRCT DJ were finally validated. It was really nice. Thanks, guy!

2. Speaking of music, Vampire Weekend is actually great. Sometimes I'll be listening to instrumental electronic stuff or grandiose post-rocky soundscapes or whatever, and I'll really just want something goddamn catchy and happy!

3. No longer speaking of music, this weekend was even better. Thank you, weekends!

4. Hate to end on a philosophical note, but I'm wondering (after going to Ecuador, although I was wondering before going to Ecuador too) what one person's responsibility is in this world.

For example, here are some responsibilities:
- Don't be a jerk. This is the most basic thing you can do: not make the world a WORSE place. Don't kill, hurt, steal, cheat, etc. But if this is all you accomplish, it by no means makes you a good person at all.
- Love other people. That's important.
- Work. Do what you're good at, and do it well. I think this is a requirement; think of the world as a commune. If you don't produce anything, you're hurting the world, because you take up things.
- Be happy. I'm pretty sure this is a responsibility, as well as a right.
- Help others, in the "service" sense. I'm not so sure about this. St. Ignatius High School would say "definitely yes." The world at large would say "meh, whatever." I mean, should I spend one day a month building a house or something? Donate 10% of my income to charity? Does that really help the world? Should I do that for my own good? Or is this just somewhat-Christian-upbringing guilt speaking?