October, 12, 2005 archives

the soft bulletin by the flaming lips is an album i bought to bump an amazon order into free shipping. not quite as brilliant as yoshimi battles the pink robots, but still very good.

i started the docent training at the central library today, and one big perk to it being on wednesday mornings is that afterwards i get to hit the farmers’ market on 5th street.

mmm, fresh roasted peanuts.

according to one of the people who works at the library, it will now be going on until the end of the year.

another booth was selling some sort of cinnamon-flavored roasted almonds that smelled amazing. i can still smell them. i’ll have to fight my way through the crowd to try them next time.

this is the front half or so of the people who were marching along. one of the people in the back had a sign that said “you are standing on indian land.” or something to that effect.

it pays to have a camera around when you hear drumming outside your window.

i need to do some research on a telephoto/zoom lens. this one is only $4000.

okay, that’s absurd. this one is only $1200.

maybe that’s still absurd. this one is only $160.

but maybe this lens would just make more sense as a new general-purpose lens. $430.

these two askmefi questions about conversation starters inspired some interesting answers. “how do you know the host?” and its variants always seem a pretty safe bet to me. “are you from around here?” and the line of questioning from there is also always pretty reliable.

i’m also one of those people who isn’t a big fan of “what do you do?” probably because what i do isn’t terribly meaningful to most people, and the most common discussion it leads to is the description of some computer problem they are having or had.

maybe i’m crazy, but i think “what’s your line?” may actually be a pretty good line itself. i expect you to research the matter and get back to me. unless it works really well, then i don’t want to know.

i can’t believe i have never shared this one before. and now i have bananas on the brain for some reason.

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar*
2 extra large eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (over-ripe)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

preheat oven to 350°F and grease (or butter) loaf pan. cream butter and sugar. add eggs, bananas, and vanilla. fold in sifted dry ingredients. add nuts. bake in loaf pan for 1¼ hours or tests done (by inserting a toothpick into the center and having it come out clean). let cool in pan for 10 minutes. turn out and let cool completely.

• i often substitute ¾ cup white sugar and ¼ cup molasses for the brown sugar.

access all areas: a user’s guide to the art of urban exploration by ninjalicious is a book whose content you can guess from the title, by the founder of a zine (and website) called infiltration that covers the same subject. (via boing boing).

underheard.org is a brilliant idea that seems destined to get shut down by the man once he finds out what is going on. but in the meantime, you can grab various public radio shows in mp3 format, including hawaiian eye, hosted by bruddah mike of franklin avenue fame. last week’s show featured a great cover version of “in my life,” originally by the beatles, from kawaipunahele by keali'i reichel. (and another two hours of great music — this just played on my predilection for beatles covers.)

i am a sucker for the zócalo and alôud events at the library and other downtown venues, and coming up on november 1 is dean baquet, newly named editor of the los angeles times, being interviewed by kevin roderick of laobserved.com at the new national center for the preservation of democracy in little tokyo.

who knows why they call it “playing hooky,” but i don’t think it really counts if you give notice a week in advance, and it’s so you can go get your taxes done on the last possible day before bad things happen.

and now that i double-check, the last possible day is actually monday. so i guess i am really getting my taxes done early this year.

next year i won’t be able to be so lax, because i will surely owe money.

“rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. it is not fair that some men should be happier than others.” — oscar wilde