Author: josh

Fork, Spoon, Butane Torch

Steph and I had a sort of build-your-own baked potato dinner this evening, wherein one takes the potato and puts any number of other toppings on it to create one’s “dream potato”. This idea is not new. Once the potatoes were out on the table, one of the ingredients I wanted on mine was shredded cheddar cheese. So I was putting the cheese on the potato, and the potato had already started to cool a bit, and the cheese just wasn’t melting correctly.

Most people would suggest a short trip to the microwave, but I insisted upon something possibly faster, more exciting, much more wasteful, and potentially more destructive for my potato.

You see, just last Christmas Steph’s mom got her a creme brulee set a lot like this little beauty. And as any creme brulee lover knows, the most important part of that whole thing is the handheld butane torch. That’s the “brulee” part! Steph had just gotten some butane to fill it today, and it was sitting out, so…

Pffffffffssshhhhhhhh……

The cheese was excellent. Really evenly melted. It actually kept melting after I removed the torch. I didn’t scorch the plate or the potato at all, and I didn’t even have to get out of my seat. I think I might try the butane torch on some old-fashioned cheese ‘n chips this week. Steph and I wondered what would happen if I started bringing the torch to restaurants. “Sir, do you need me to warm that up?” “Oh, no thanks, I’ve got it. (Pfffffsssshhhhhhhhh)”

Next week: arc welding prime rib!

Dead Trees

I got a flier in the mail today from Newsweek, a magazine I pretend to read. It said that if I renewed now, I could get the next year’s worth of issues (that’s 54 issues, mind you) for only 59 cents an issue. I’m flipping through the latest issue right now, with “Deep Throat” on the cover. This is pretty high quality paper. Every single page is full color. It’s 88 pages long, plus the front and back cover. It’s usually decent writing, too.

I’m not going to renew. Not even for 59 cents an issue. It’s not a content problem, although it’s true that I don’t have time to read it all after sifting through the stories I don’t care about. It’s just that I get the news I really care about elsewhere. Paper is a dying medium. It’s good for some things, certainly. Artwork is one. Reading a book still feels better on paper than a computer screen, although I happen to prefer the audio format for fiction. I’d rather look at photography on some kind of paper-based product than on a computer screen, assuming there were no opportunities for interactivity.

Still, the ‘Net is having a vast impact on the print medium, to the extent that they can practically give their stuff away, and people like me still won’t take it.

My semi-obvious prediction: TV is the next major medium to change (or suffer) due to the Internet.

WWDC Bash

Each year, during the WWDC Conference, Apple invites the thousands of attending developers back to its main campus (otherwise known as “Infinite Loop”) for a little food, drink, and music. I took a few pictures.


Around 6:30 in the evening Bus after bus of developers arrive from the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, where the conference is held. Here, they’re heading out into the central courtyard from the lobby of IL1.


The crowd grabbed some food and sat in the grass to watch the band, which was…


… The Wallflowers! The lead singer is Bob Dylan’s son. I’m sure that had some small effect on their being invited, since Steve loves Bob Dylan.


A few people came over to my place afterwards. Starting from the left, that’s Dan Schimpf, me, and Mike Zornek. There was this other guy named Joe Howard who was here, but he’s not in the picture because he wasn’t cool enough. Or he left early. One of those. I don’t remember which.

Smart Boards

I’m so jealous of kids today and in the future. Some of them get to use these things called “Smart boards”, which are really taking off in educational use according to Wired. The idea that you could put notes up on the board, and then manipulate and transform those notes instantly, or go from a particular bullet point to a better, more detailed example of that point, is incredibly compelling. I think it would make learning much more dynamic and fluid.

The thing that really bugs me is that I predicted this invention about nine years ago, but I never invested in SMART Technologies. D’oh!

Podcasting

My first entry involving audio was done almost two years ago and it was only my 12th entry. My 14th and 15th entries were mostly audio, and then my 16th entry was the post where I admitted that I was learning how boring audio can be if it’s done incorrectly. And this all predates the term “podcasting” by about 7 months. (My entries weren’t technically podcasting since I wasn’t using RSS enclosures, but you get the idea.) I’ve been doing audio on the ‘Net since 1997 or 1998 for Mission Control, a college radio show I co-hosted with my buddy Kevin Hendricks, and it’s a topic near and dear to my heart.

Well, Steve Jobs just announced at the 2005 WWDC Keynote (from 6:55 – 12:22) that the next version of iTunes will support direct podcast downloading, and that the iTunes Music Store (which apparently now has an 82% market share of online downloads) will contain an entire section dedicated to finding and subscribing to podcasts. These aren’t necessarily professionals we’re talking about here. They’re people living in farmhouses in Wisconsin. As Steve put it, it’s “Wayne’s World for radio”.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, and I think it’s time for a little announcement of my own. Stephanie and I will soon be doing our own podcast on a very regular basis. Yes, Stephanie and I, not just me. I was shocked to find that she was fairly excited about the idea, so I figured it could only help things to have someone to play off of and give a different perspective to the issues we discuss. Heck, I figure she’ll be at least half the reason people listen! Or the whole reason half the people listen. Or… something. The show will probably be filled with our critiques and discussions of whatever issues we’ve had on our minds, but I think we’ll be able to bring a little structure to it so it’s not hard to follow. Just trust me on this one. It’s something I’m working out.

So there you have it. More news to follow. I’d love to know what you think we should call the show.

Gene Kelly is Poppin’ and Lockin’

Some of you may have seen an ad featuring Gene Kelly breakdancing floating around the web over the last few months. Give that thing a view. I know “A-list” blogger Jason Kottke saw it way before I did, and posted an interview with one of the dancers, who calls himself Elsewhere.

I’ve probably watched that ad about 20 times. I absolutely love it, and I love that style of dancing even more. And apparently so does ne-o the vid house that put the ad together, because they also did another really sweet music video for a song called “Late at Night” by Futureshock. In the video, dancing is portrayed as an odd kind of contagious disease. Nothing could be more true! Flee the dancers, dear readers, or they will soon blight us all! The security guards are my favorite. Especially the fat one. That guy rocks.

The really odd thing is that I was into Elsewhere back in April or May. I was Googling his name, looking up information about him, and generally being fascinated. And I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t he be great to have in an iPod ad?” And about two weeks later this ad came out. I’m pretty sure he’s the shadow we first see on a green background (but how could you ever tell?) simply because his moves are so distinctive. What say you?

Post-college Lessons

I’ve been learning some valuable post-college lessons in the last few months. Some of this stuff may seem obvious to some of you, but my personality has resisted learning a few of these until recently. I’d be really interested to hear what other post-college lessons the graduates among you have learned. Here are mine:

  • Be prepared to accept short nights on weeknights.
  • Get 8 or 9 hours of sleep every night. Try not to make exceptions to that.
  • Take joy in your work. Get into it.
  • Don’t take your job too seriously.
  • Have a couple hobbies that remind you who you are.