Michael Sautter

Time & Place: the usual.
Present: Jesse, Steve, Patsy, Myles and me.

If you missed coffee on Sunday then this is the place to catch up on what you missed. If you were there then maybe the notes and links will compliment and enlighten our deep philosophical discussion.

Dungeon Siege

Steve’s drive to get some multi-player Dungeon Siege action going seems to be getting some traction. Myles has ordered the game. However I’m not interested in playing and apparently neither is Jesse.

Disney Problems

Just where is the low-income housing controversy happening? It looks like California (more info).

Red Tide in Florida

Speaking of Disney and Florida, red tide really sucks according to Steve. Whatever is causing it, it is not due to mankind’s polluting the environment because if God didn’t want us to pollute then there would be no pollution.

Paris Hilton

The death of the American Dream? There used to be a time in America when with a little fame and a lot of money a rich person could get away with murder. What’s happened now? Ms. Hilton cannot even get out of some traffic trouble? Why should people work hard to gain fame and fortune if they won’t be able to buy their way out of driving with a suspended license? (/sarcasm)

Is Paris Hilton as ugly as everyone says she is? Myles doesn’t think so. Jesse disagrees with Myles. I think that she’s fairly attractive, probably with a lot of help from plastic surgery.

Related YouTube video: Shawskank Redemption .

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Does she have a rich father? Yes, according to Wikipedia.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City to a wealthy Franco-American family best-known for the Louis Dreyfus Group, an international investment and banking firm.

Her father’s net worth is estimated to be over 3 billion dollars. (Wiki link)

Baseball

My fat ‘P’ Phillies baseball cap seemed to have attracted a Red Sox fan in a nice suit. He wanted to know why Phil’s fans don’t like Charlie Manuel. How about Uncle Charlie still is struggling with the double switch? More info.: FireUncleCharlie.com .

Jose Mesa back with the Phillies? You cannot be serious. His ERA is over 12 and his age is over 41.

Eagles

Steve thinks the Eagles will trade Donovan but he’s not sure when. What’s with Donovan’s beard? He looks like he’s Amish or something.

Computers

Jesse reports problems with HP print drivers with Windows and that the HP web site sucks.

I’m on an Ubuntu Linux computer (2.7 Ghz. Celeron) and I have not had a problem with my Samsung ML-1210 printer. You can read more about my installation of Ubuntu at Newsvine .

Afraid to install Ubuntu on your own? Then maybe buy a computer with it already installed at System 76 or Dell .

New Bionic Woman

Michelle Ryan is the new Bionic Woman according to Wikipedia.

Tony & Joe’s Pizza

In Jesse’s defense their phone number is close to mine. More info.: TonyAndJoesPizza.com .

by Lawrence C. Connolly
Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, July 2007 edition

Space opera-et or science fiction novelet?

I suppose that if I am not sure what the piece of speculative science is that this fictional story revolves around then it really is just a short space opera. Not that that is necessarily bad, it is entertaining and it’s not like I wish I had that fifteen minutes of my life back or anything.

The setting of this story is a primitive planet and Cara Gamma, a copy of a woman from a highly advanced society, is observing the native inhabitants. Cara meets up with a native and is drawn into a problem the tribe is having. Will she help them? If so then how?

The world created here is interesting but I am not sure about the motivations of Cara, why does she do the things that she does? The author does not even tell us the reason the advanced society is observing the primitive one.

Again this was an entertaining story but there is not a Big Idea science fiction-wise that it revolves around. I think of it as SF bubblegum.

by Ray Vukcevich
Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, July 2007 edition

What if a refrigerator was smart enough to know what was put into it and what if it was programmed to alert the proper authorities if that something was illegal?

That is exactly what happens in this short story, however when the fridge snitches it is expecting to talk with another machine which happens to be off-line at that moment. Instead human beings answer the fridge’s call and it does not believe that it is talking with real people. What follows is a twist on the Turing Test.

Overall an interesting idea that is well written but very brief (just three pages).

Tomorrows review:
Daughters of Prime by Lawrence C. Connoly
Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, July 2007 edition

A columnist in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer put forth the idea that the Eagles could trade Donovan McNabb to the Chicago Bears for LB Lance Briggs before the season starts. It’s not going to happen.

The reasoning behind this rumor is that the Bears need a quarterback and the Eagles still could use a little help on defense. Briggs, a very good linebacker, has vowed never to play for the Bears again. So, the thinking goes, why wouldn’t Chicago trade him and get something for him.

Well, for one thing McNabb is still rehabbing his ACL injury. Speculation varies a bit but no one will know for sure how health he is until he plays some real games which will not be until the pre-season games at the very earliest. And even then I’m not so certain Chicago would make the trade since McNabb would then have very little time to learn the Bears’ offense.

From the Eagles point of view, they do not want to trade him because they feel they can compete for the Super Bowl this season. Without McNabb the Eagles will not contend this season. Also the Bears stand in the way of the Eagles reaching the Super Bowl this season, why make them stronger? Finally Lance Briggs would not make the Eagles defense that much better. Certainly the not such a dominating force that they could win with A.J. Feely at quarterback. A quarterback can make or break a football team, not so much a weak-side linebacker.

The 2007 may be McNabb’s last with the Eagles however I doubt very much that he will be traded before the season even starts, mostly due to his ACL.

This is chef Bourdain’s autobiography as it relates to food. It should appeal to people who are interested in food, cooking or restaurants.

Tony first became aware that food is important as a child when his family spent a summer visiting relatives in France. Later in life, as a teenager he worked in a kitchen at a seaside resort town in New England. This is where he decided upon a life as a cook. Tony dropped out of college and entered the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

After graduating from the CIA, Tony returned to the seaside resort town and worked in a restaurant and did catering on the side with a friend who was a pastry chef. Tony then continued to chase the dollars which led him to New York City, where he cooked in a number of places, including a large union shop high atop a sky scrapper (that Frank Sinatra frequented), a smaller Italian restaurant owned by a very organized Italian family (ya’ know what I mean), and a restaurant near Broadway owned by a gay couple. Tony and his cohorts even tried opening their own restaurant in the city. Notice I said ‘tried,’ it flopped.

Then Tony realized that the food had to come first and he became the executive chef at Les Halles, the restaurant in Manhattan that he is most associated with and which he gained some notoriety. The book’s final section deals with a typical day for Tony at Les Halles. Tony also compares his career with another chef who put food first his entire career and there is a trip to Tokyo to instruct French chefs before the opening of a Les Halles restaurant in that city. All along the way there are a number of colorful characters, my favorite is Adam Last-Name-Unknown. The book ends with a commencement speech Tony gave to a graduating class of culinary students.

When it was first published, Kitchen Confidential caused a bit of a stir for Tony’s recommendations for restaurant diners. He suggests the best days of the week to eat at restaurants and which day that it might be best to avoid the seafood. If you like your steak well-done then you may want to change your mind after reading Kitchen Confidential.

For home cooks, Tony recommends making your own stock and demi-glace. He also gives a few tips about kitchen knives.

I really like this book and I read it in a weekend, however some people are turned off by Tony’s personality. His style is not of a fancy-pants chef who visits the Met to watch opera with his free time. Tony is a straight talker with the odd curse word thrown in here and there. His music taste is for 1970s US punk - Ramones, Dead Boys and Television. Think sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll rather than wine, women and song. Whether you like him or loath him, Tony gives you a look into the kitchen of the restaurant business.

I like Legend, it’s a good, heroic sword and sorcery story. I intend to read more of the books in The Drenai Saga.

The basic plot is that the Nadir empire is threatening to swallow up the Drenai kingdom. A lone castle stands in the way of the Nadir horde, can it stand up against the invaders and save the Drenai people? Coming out of retirement and to the defense of the castle is Druss, a legendary warrior.

The story takes a little bit to really get cooking and the end is a bit contrived but in between it is a real page-turner.

After the success that I had last year planting basil and thyme, I decided to expand my herbage this year.

Hanging Garden

The herbs that I’m growing are sweet basil (albahaca dulce), thyme (thymus vulgaris), tarragon (atremisa dracunculus), sage (salvia officinalis), rosemary, Italian flat-leaf parsley and common chives (allium schoenoprasum). I bought small starter plants for all of them (one plant each) except for the parsley and chives which I’m growing from seeds. The plants are in hanging baskets so I can hang them up at night away from the squirrels.

I’m also growing a single Roma tomato plant. I may also grow a hot pepper plant or two but for now the tomato plant is my only non-herb flora.

Herb Photos

You can check out pictures of my plants here: Herbs 2007 (photo set at Flickr).

Plants For A Future

Plants For A Future (www.pfaf.org) is a very useful and informative web site for herbs and vegetables.

Apr. 2 to Apr. 8, 2007

Articles

• Phillies, “This Is the Same as Last Season”
• MLB Poll: Division Winners

Seeds

• First Sip: Vya Vermouth
• The Restaurant Reporter: Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle
• All Go on ‘X-Files’ Sequel with David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson
• Showdown: Adium vs. iChat
• Halle Berry Says No to ‘X-Men’ Spin-Off
• Growl…The Mac App You Probably Aren’t but Should be Using
• Cracking code of egg terms
• Waiter, I’ll Have the Pizza Wine
• Robert Heinlein at One Hundred

Read my Newsvine column for the latest articles and seeds.

Billions and billions of years ago a cosmic big bang took place and the universe was born. Or if you prefer, six thousand years ago God decided to create the Earth. Either way the start of my blog pales in comparason.

I had registered this domain years ago (I have been playing with HTML since the late 1990s) but let it expire. Now I’m re-starting the domain as a blog since WordPress is so easy to use.

What do I have planned for my blog? Well, my interests include sports, food, computers, and the internet.

So welcome to my blog, I hope you find it interesting.