Amazon

I spent a good hour today reading reviews on Amazon's new e-book devise, the Kindle.

It's quite interesting-- at first I didn't really pay attention to its big ad on the frontpage of Amazon because... well, it looks kind of ugly, and I have never warmed up to the idea of an electronic device replacing the experience of reading from a real book.

But after reading reviews from people who have actually tried it out (most of the negatives are from people who haven't), it actually sounds like it might be something worth buying when I have the money.

The main point is that the screen reads like paper, with something called "e-ink" technology. There isn't the subtle flicker of, say, laptops, and so it's easy on the eyes like a normal book.

Some other major features include the fact that there is free wireless on it so that you can review, purchase, and download ebooks without having to find wifi or be plugged in. You can also subscribe to newspapers and blogs and magazines, which automatically dL onto the Kindle. There's even access to wikipedia-- I don't know the extent of the wireless usage beyond that.

This isn't meant to be a multi-media devise. For example, there's no color (I believe the technology for color 'e-ink' isn't there yet) and mp3s supposedly can only be played at random. But it seems to be really attractive for someone who wants to be able to easily carry a lot of reading material around (esp for traveling). It's light, so you could just pop it out and read it when you have a random five minutes here and there. That would be nice.

But at this very moment, $400 would have to be spent more wisely for me...


Some books I bought/ordered today:















I've been wanting to get Water for Elephants for a while... should be a good beach read in Hawaii :) The reviews on it are great, and from people who like similar books as I do.

Well, actually, these all have great reviews because I am OCD when it comes to reading reviews. I will research all similar products to death before coming down to a decision. It's probably a big waste of my time but I can't help it.

The Knowledge Book I bought from Borders, so it's the only one I have so far. It's awesome. It's by National Geographic and is very well laid out, with full color and lots of pictures (my favorite :) ). It was also really inexpensive for such a well made book.


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Picture of the Post:

What used to be on the Hotel Figueroa (next to the Staples Center). I really liked it.

Moth has turned into Butterfly

I will probably get sick of this super sweet design in a month, but change is always fun :)

Finals are in a week and I couldn't be more Procrastinatey than I am right now.

Picture of the Post:

in an alley in Mexico City's San Angel district

Aptera

an electronic car starting around $26K that will be available next year. interesting. i wonder how long it will be before electronic cars will catch on. It's good that, among other things, it will reduce emissions in areas where populations are most concentrated. And obviously the mileage issue (in the hybrid models). But you still have to consider that it takes gas to generate electricity in the first place..

http://www.aptera.com/

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Historical Drinking Stories

an interesting article on CNN....

"Drinking stories that put yours to shame"


1. Admiral Edward Russell's 17th-Century throwdown

Think you can drink like a sailor? Maybe you should take a moment to reflect on what that truly means.

The record for history's largest cocktail belongs to British Lord Admiral Edward Russell. In 1694, he threw an officer's party that employed a garden's fountain as the punch bowl.

The concoction? A mixture that included 250 gallons of brandy, 125 gallons of Malaga wine, 1,400 pounds of sugar, 2,500 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice, and 5 pounds of nutmeg.

A series of bartenders actually paddled around in a small wooden canoe, filling up guests' cups. Not only that, but they had to work in 15-minute shifts to avoid being overcome by the fumes and falling overboard.

The party continued nonstop for a full week, pausing only briefly during rainstorms to erect a silk canopy over the punch to keep it from getting watered down. In fact, the festivities didn't end until the fountain had been drunk completely dry.


2. The London Brew-nami of 1814

The Industrial Revolution wasn't all steam engines and textile mills. Beer production increased exponentially, as well. Fortunately, the good people of England were up to the challenge and drained kegs as fast as they were made. Brewery owners became known as "beer barons," and they spent their newfound wealth in an age-old manner -- by trying to party more than the next guy.

Case in point: In 1814, Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery in London constructed a brewing vat that was 22 feet tall and 60 feet in diameter, with an interior big enough to seat 200 for dinner -- which is exactly how its completion was celebrated. (Why 200? Because a rival had built a vat that seated 100, of course.)

After the dinner, the vat was filled to its 4,000-barrel capacity. Pretty impressive, given the grand scale of the project, but pretty unfortunate given that they overlooked a faulty supporting hoop. Yup, the vat ruptured, causing other vats to break, and the resulting commotion was heard up to 5 miles away.

A wall of 1.3 million gallons of dark beer washed down the street, caving in two buildings and killing nine people by means of "drowning, injury, poisoning by the porter fumes, or drunkenness."

The story gets even more unbelievable, though. Rescue attempts were blocked and delayed by the thousands who flocked to the area to drink directly off the road. And when survivors were finally brought to the hospital, the other patients became convinced from the smell that the hospital was serving beer to every ward except theirs. A riot broke out, and even more people were left injured.

Sadly, this incident was not deemed tragic enough at the time to merit an annual memorial service and/or reenactment.

(skipped #3, thought it did not meet the same level as the others)


4. The worst aftertaste in history

In 1805, British Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain. Most sailors were simply put to rest at sea, but as an admiral, Nelson had to be brought back to England for an official burial.

To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.

Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.


5. Indian elephants raid the liquor cabinet

No wonder they don't sell beer at the circus. Apparently, elephants like to get wasted. In fact, an outpost of the Indian army in the jungle region of Bagdogra has been under attack ever since a local herd of elephants raided the base in search of food and discovered the soldiers' entire winter rations of rum.

Since then, the pachyderms have regularly raided the base for a drink and have smashed down all defenses put up by the army, including electrified fences and firewalls.

According to The Daily Telegraph, "An officer recently posted there explained that the elephants broke the rum bottles by cleverly curling their trunks around the bottom. Then they empty the contents down their throats. They soon got drunk, he said, and swayed around. They enjoy themselves and then return to the jungle."

This is by no means a singular incident, though. The animal kingdom is well-known for its ability to identify fruit that's begun to ferment. Anthropologists even believe this is how early man discovered alcohol -- by observing the strange behavior of animals on a fruit bender.

fine dining v. furakake

Lately I've been dining at several fancy shmancy restaurants because it is recruiting season. Firms can't stoop to the level of Applebee's or Claim Jumpers (both are restaurants that I like), so we have to go to Craft (top chef Tom's restaurant), AOC, Patina, Nick n Stef's, etc.

... Which is pretty awesome for me since I otherwise would not be going there on my measly grad student budget. Orrr I'd be going there and ordering one entree, MAYBE one drink, and nothing else. Not that there's anything wrong with that :) Anyway, the food is generally pretty dang good(notwithstanding my very sad experience at Nick and Stef's, a STEAK restaurant, where I felt compelled to order a SALAD oh horrors I don't even like salads at salad joints). Seared this, braised that, simmered something.

But today, as I was sitting at my desk savoring every mouthful of rice and furakake (japanese rice seasoning mmmm), I remembered thinking that as much as I enjoy eating the snazzy food, it really just doesn't hit home like an in n out burger or slice of really cheesy pizza with a glass of newcastle does. MAYBE an awesome steak with mashed potatoes will, but that's not really part of the fancy artsy crafty food party.

So at the end of the day, it's nice to be able to try these restaurants and I'm sure I will try more out once I have an actual income, but I don't see myself ever being one of those people who are ALL about trying out the latest trendiest restaurant so that I can feel super cool and tell my friends all about it. As delicious as the food is, and as much as I can appreciate the talents of the chef, it just won't do it for me like a steak, burger, or crunchwrap supreme will.

creepy ads

I love the marketing tactic where the spokesmodel unleashes some not-so-subtle subliminal message on you that you MUST have what they are harking. Example: Britney's fragrance, Fantasy, has the logo "everybody has one"

The latest one: Sarah Jessica Parker's "Covet"... the whole reason for this post was because I was watching Beauty and the Geek (great show btw ahah) and every time this commercial came on (which was quite often), I had to switch to the next channel because the ending freaked me out. She looks CRAZY! Which I assume is what she's going for but it just stepped over that line from "funny creepy" to "creepy creepy" for me.

It looks scarier on TV, I must admit.

Recover Lost Temporary Files

I almost had a heart attack this morning because a memo I had spent hours working on was suddenly goooone. Turned out it was because I was saving it as I had opened it from a Gmail account, making it a temp file, making it disappear when I decided to be responsible and actually shut down my computer. So it wasn't in the recycle bin, wasn't in the temp folder, was unsearchable.

3 failed recovery programs and 1 hour of Google research later, I found a cure:

First, download this program: Restoration

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html


Then, go to the application you need (word, excel, etc), click on the restored copy, and do one of two things (it should become evident which you need):

1) on the "Open" button, click the little down arrow on the right of the button and select "open and repair"

2) on the drop down menu "File Type" select "Recover Text"


It won't be formatted but it will be a hell of a lot better than starting from scratch.


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