I Finished Things

Wow it's been a real long time, huh? Well, despite my lack of attention to this blog, there is one thing that I will not leave you hanging on: the awesome brutality of the 1,079 page book.

Yes that is right. I have returned to update you on this most important matter. (That Guy: "You're blogging?!!")

I have finished the book, and after a few re-reads of certain parts, and a first reading of a website that should help me understnad what the heck I just read, I might be able to form intelligent opinions on it. If you can't already tell, I felt the end was a bit of a letdown. It didn't end, so much as...stopped having pages. I feel like a chunk of the book is missing. And again, as if Wallace simply forgot to proofread, and thus the whole "no ending" thing got through publishing.

I should point out here that I am no English major. I barely scraped through the minimal requirements. I relied on Cliffs Notes to explain symbolism and hidden concepts to me. And my mom, the English teacher, explained a lot of things. The deepest thing I read before this was "The Cat in the Hat." And I still could not tell you what the stupid hat represents (I'm going with "phallus").

My point is, I liked Infinite Jest. I really did. It's just probable that I am not the target audience here; I never played pro tennis, never had an addiction, and was never physically malformed. The deep, heart -wrenching fictional concepts and situations contained just left me moved, sad, and confused, yet entertained. Perhaps that WAS what Wallace meant it to be.

For me, it was also about the experience of reading it, and the challenge. I am so glad I did. The reading was difficult at times, but not terrible; the characters were great, the story ridiculous and believable at the same time. It is a book I will never forget.

Now who wants to borrow it first?

Apple Update

So TG and I found ourselves at the Apple Store again. This time, a blue-shirted guy (per usual, one of a myriad of blue shirts hanging around talking) offered to help almost as soon as we entered. He retrieved our item from the back, and pulled out his super-primo-extra-large-edition iPhone to check us out. "Oh, we are paying cash," said TG. "No problem," said the geek*. He led us to a display table in the middle of the store with some iMacs. He hit some buttons on the phone. And then: a cash register drawer popped out of the display table. Right under the iMacs! We started laughing; we couldn't help it. The idea that of all the times we were in the store we never noticed a drawer in the table was just too ridiculous. Better yet, the drawer is full of money. Just hanging out where people play with computers all day. Lesson here is: don't try to steal the computers from the Apple Store, steal the tables.

*Level of geekdom assumed, not officially determined.

Read about my previous Apple experience here.

Success!

Marshmallows again. Much better this time. I went with Alton Brown's recipe from Food Network (he's usually got pretty good recipes and doesn't let me down). The process was actually pretty simple, just took some time. No egg whites this time to mess everything up!


I wanted to take a pic with snow around it, as I made these on Wednesday's snow day, but realized it would become an icy puddle really fast.

A cup of cocoa was delicious with breakfast this morning, a Dutch Baby. It's a baked eggy pancake, sort of like a souffle. I do not like eggs, but this tastes like eggs the way French Toast tastes like eggs...sort of, but not really. Below is the recipe, which is based on another version but added more flour and milk.

Terrible photos? We've got those!

3 Eggs
3/4 cup Milk
3/4 cup Flour
Pinch of Salt
3-4 tbsp Unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 400°, place on a low rack in the oven a 9" pie plate, casserole, or whatever you've got handy (different sizes will just vary the thickness).

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend well, or whisk together in a bowl. Melt butter directly in the pan in the oven. When it is melted, pour in batter. Bake 15-20 mins. The sides will puff up a lot. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. It's good with fruit, applesauce, syrup, etc.

They're Back!

Food Network and HGTV are BACK ON THE AIR! Alright!! Thank you everyone for your support during this difficult time. Here is a summary of the negotiations:

Cablevision, Scripps reach fee agreement

Nudge

After reading The Guinea Pig Diaries, I read a book that helped inspire an essay from it: Nudge. In The Guinea Pig Diaries, there is a chapter on thinking rationally. Since it's hard to explain, please enjoy this description directly from A.J. Jacobs' website:

The Rationality Project:
I tried to retrain my brain to be something more than an ad hoc collection of half-assed solutions that have built up over millions of years of evolution. I attempted to eliminate every irrational bias using the insights of behavioral economics. And in doing so, I permanently changed the way I make every decision, from the simplest (what toothpaste to buy) to the biggest (how to raise the kids).

Basically, it comes down to making decisions based on absolute logic, without letting your pesky brain get in the way. Quick example: saying that a certain surgical procedure results in "1 out of 10 patients dying" sounds worse than "9 out of 10 patients survive," even though they mean exactly the same thing.

Nudge is a book which explores behavioral economics, and how to basically "nudge" people into making the right decisions by changing how options are presented to them. It's very psychological. The first half of the book demonstrates the theories, but the second half got kind of boring. They described long case studies, such as one about companies' 401k programs: many employees are apathetic about joining such programs, but by making it easier for them to join and have the plan grow with them ("nudging"), more people would participate.

I wanted to mention it because it was very interesting overall, and really makes you think about how you actually think. I give it 3 1/2 things.

New Evidence

Something has been brought to my attention by a detail-conscious reader that even I didn't notice when reasearching for the Rice Krispies post. Mainly, this:

They are not "Jumbo Rice Krispies," they are "Jumbo Multi-grain Krispies." Somehow this is worse for me; now instead of admitting it's a completely different cereal, they are hiding under the trendy guise of "multi-grain." Multi-grain is usually BS when it comes to cereal, but that is a different post.

This makes a big difference. In all my investigating of the physical properties of the cereal, I overlooked the basic marketing of the name on the box. I did what most humans would: breezed over the smaller word, and inferred "krispies" to mean "rice krispies." That really tells you something about how far implanted into our brains the original Krispies are.

As for my own misconception, I blame the commercial, where I was first introduced to the product: a woman is giving her little girl the Jumbo Krispies, and the girl is amazed at how big they are! Thereby implying "whoa these are huge Rice Krispies!"

To sum up: I am angry at Kellogg's. But I still love their delicious breakfast foods.

Alpha Follow-up

Last night I had a very big bowl of Alpha Bits (finishing them), and found one each of these letters, which I did not have initially:

T
E
M
H

Astute readers will notice you can spell METH now. Not sure what my Alpha Bits are trying to tell me.

Bacon Salt

Remember this guy?

He told me to say hello to you. "Everything should taste like bacon" indeed. Here is a list of what I used this on (so far):

• Creamy pasta salad (twice)
• Sprinkled on diced tomatoes
• Chili - it was just ok - I do not recommend this application
• Bread and Butter - soo good!
• Fresh mozzerella - SOOO good!

I really must look into a chicken dish or something with it...that was the original intention, I just haven't found a good way to incorporate it yet. Any ideas out there?

We were on TV!

Non-food

I know there's been a lot of food-related posts lately, and some of you out there might not be that interested in food. But sometimes, that is just how things turn out. When you basically have nothing to do every day, life moves pretty slow, and you write what you are familiar with.

Follow Up

Once again, The Daily Show proves itself to be the most informative show I watch. Here is a link to their segment about Twitter.

Previously in our story.