Red Sweater Blog: “Now that the application is running crash free, I can breathe a sigh of relief. I could ship this thing, but I choose not to.”

Workbench: “Victory Declared in the Battle for Wargames.Com”

Boing Boing: “Authentic 1950’s interior paint colors”

Looks like I made the registration…

In the days that have followed the ice storm, I’ve found that I really missed cooking. I missed the food chemistry, the pressure to time the cooking and eating and generally, the “oohs” and “ahhs” that go with a well-prepared meal. I made guacamole for yesterday’s Super Sunday football party and it was good–and rewarding. It was the reminder that I missed cooking more than I realized. The picture at the left is of Doug Guiccone, Italian chef and a great guy, who taught me that it was more important to “feel” when you cook than to follow the instructions.

rentzsch.com: Tales from the Red Shed: “Programmers desire to rewrite because they know that after starting with a clean sheet of paper and building it all again, at the end they’ll understand the whole. Programmers write code to learn. Software has this double-edged sword where you can’t just wave your hands instead of implementing a particular function. It all has to be crystal. Programmers know this. They know when they’re done, they’ll have a complete understanding. It’s a noble desire.”

DarrenBarefoot.com: “Continuing with an ongoing urination device theme (see also here and here), here’s David Sedaris reading an entertaining essay about the Stadium Pal, a portable urinal.”

Bungie Halo 3 Humpday: “It was revealed that one of the Halo 3 gametypes that the EGM guys got to play had altered gravity. As it stands, gravity can be increased or decreased as easily any other gameplay setting. In this instance of rockets on Snowbound, we set it to 50%. It was ridiculously fun.”

Since I got tagged by Dwight, here’s my list of things you may not know about me:

1. I know what a Xenon decay constant is. I spent 4.5 years in the US Navy in the nuclear power program learning how the Navy uses nuclear power on board it’s ships. The training facilities are incredible and there a things about them I just can’t say, but they are fantastic. It ended badly, mainly due to my immaturity, but I retained most of the knowledge, the learning techniques and an honorable discharge.

2. I used to get late-night phone calls from Crispen Glover in 1991. He read me (and my roommate Bert) weird poetry.

3. I am afraid of rabbits in the way that most people are afraid of snakes. Put one within five feet of me and I get nervous. If it gets within three feet, I’ll get up and move. I can’t tell you why but I feel like they are about to leap at my neck and bite into my jugular vein. Seriously.

4. I’ve helped pull a newborn calf from the mother’s birth canal, once with a winch device called a “come a-long”. It’s just as gross as it sounds.

5. I am irrationally shameful that I never went to college. I somehow feel like less of a success because I didn’t pay through the nose for four years of lectures and hazing. I can’t shake it–no matter what my achievements–and I consider it one of my character flaws.

(whew!)