dangerblog

Gilmore Girls Therapy

I spent six hours today debugging a seemingly impenetrable code problem that turned out to be a result of the database on my machine having only 5MB of storage. And if that's not enough, I spent the next hour figuring out that whoever set up the too small database also neglected to give the one and only database user the rights to increase it. So am I going to fix it? Nah. I'm just going to move to another desk.

So after such a day, it was lovely to sit down with a big plate of yummy spaghetti to indulge in my favorite TV show, Gilmore Girls, where crises occur because they lost easter eggs in the town square or because there might not be enough fresh zucchini for the opening of the new bed and breakfast. Sure, they've had more serious plotlines as time goes on, but without fail every week it's like a little fantasyland full of charming people and witty banter.

Ahh...I feel much better now....

Tuna: It's What's For Dinner

My work day today was interminably long, the room was very, very cold, and I did not get done all that I set out to do for today. But enough about that. I want to talk about what's for dinner.

One of my favorite dinner items when we eat out is seared tuna. At Japanese or sushi restaurants, it is often called Tuna Tataki. At other restaurants they just call it Seared Ahi or Ahi Sashimi (which is a misnomer, since it is lightly cooked). I have been working on making it at home. I've been using Bonefish Grill's version of it as a model because of the sauces they use, but my recipe is a combination of a bunch of recipes I found on the Internet and my own invention. So, if you like your tuna rare, give this a try:

Tuna Tataki
2 lb. trimmed Tuna, freshest possible, sashimi grade is preferable
1 T peanut oil
1 T red chili sesame oil
3 T scallions
Black pepper to taste
Ponzu Sauce (recipe below)
Mustard Sauce (recipe below)
Wasabi Paste

Cut tuna into 4 rectanglar shapes. Marinate for 1-4 hours in the refrigerator. Cook over high heat until the outside is just seared (the lower quality your tuna, the longer you may want to cook it). This will take about a minute per side. After all the sides have been heated, let it cool for about 2 minutes and then slice into thin slices across the grain.

Ponzu Sauce
2 T Low Sodium Soy Sauce
4 T rice wine vinegar
1 T freshly grated ginger
2 tsp Mirin

Combine all ingredients and serve. Better if made the day before, but definitely serviceable if done while the fish is marinating.

Mustard Sauce
1 T Gray Poupon w/ Wine Wine
2 t Mayonnaise (light is fine)
2 t scallions
1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
Splash of hot sauce

Combine all ingredients and serve.

(Serves 3-4 as entree)

I have had good results pairing this with Jasmine rice or with wasabi mashed potatoes. It makes a pretty BFL-friendly meal.

Hope you enjoy!

I Am at One With the Goats

Yesterday morning, Dangerguy and I woke up at the crack of dawn and went out to run in our 5K. It has been a long time since I've tried to run in a race, (There was a half-marathon last winter that Dangerguy and I had not bothered to train at all for and therefore ended up walking more than half of the race.) and I don't think I've ever run in a race so small. I had pretty good odds of coming in last.

Dangerguy used to run track and field in high school, and he was pretty fast, and he plays sports like soccer now and then that keep up his running skills. So he is a lot faster than I am. He took off right from the gate at his normal sub-10 minute mile pace while I hung in the back with the women with strollers and other small children. I did not bring my half-working MP3 player, because I was hoping to find someone fun to run with to inspire me, but no such luck. I ended up running a lot of the race by myself.

I have only trained to two miles recently, so my body decided after the two mile mark that it wasn't so sure about this 3.1 miles. Also, somehow I had been running well ahead of my normal sluggish pace of 12 minute miles to a blazingly fast sub-11 minute mile. When I realized this, I pretty much knew I was in trouble. I ended up having to walk about a quarter of a mile. Bummer.

My PR for a 5K is 29 minutes, which happened on a cooler day in the fall when I found someone great to talk to who distracted me from the actual running part of it. Yesterday's time was around 34 minutes, which means that even with all the walking I still average around 11 minute miles. I did not come in last. Woo hoo!

After the race, Dangerguy and I went out to a little cafe and had some lunch and then he spontaneously took me to the zoo!!! I love the zoo!!! Isn't Dangerguy the best?!?

We got to see some sea lions who were hamming it up, which for a long time were my favorite of the day. The primates were, of course, very entertaining, and Dangerguy decided that his favorite of the day were the little capuchin monkeys. We were almost ready to leave when he told me there was a petting zoo.

"Do you think there are any goats?" I looooove goats.

Well, we found the barn and then I found the goats. There were several there, but one guy really liked human attention, and was letting Dangerguy pet him. Then I found the spot. Apparently, goats have been itching between their horns and under their chins their whole lives with no one to relieve them. I kept scratchng his head for a quite a while. Every time I stopped, he looked at me with his sad little goat eyes and I had to continue. I named him Louie. I really wanted to take Louie home with me.

I am Goat Girl. I am at one with the goats.

Songs Radio Stations Are Required By Law To Play Daily

Dangerguy and I were driving around tonight with the top down, music blaring, when the song "Jenny Says" by Cowboy Mouth comes on the radio. Now, I live in the Southeastern US, where it's somewhat surprising that we get to have any alternative stations at all, but I find it interesting that in all the cities I've lived in multiple states, there are these same songs that just refuse to drop off the playlist (probably due to the fact that Clear Channel monopolizes all the radio stations, but I will save that rant for another day). We decided in the car tonight to call them "Songs Alternative Radio Stations Are Required By Law to Play Daily". So, here's our list, broken into categories of felonies and misdemeanors based on our sense of how vital it is that the song gets played at least once in a 24 hour period:

Felonies:

1. "Been Caught Stealing", Janes Addiction
   
2. "Jenny Says", Cowboy Mouth
   
3. "She Talks to Angels", Black Crowes
   

Misdemeanors:

1. "Shimmer", Fuel
   
2. "Two Turn Tables and a Microphone", Beck
   
3. "No Rain", Blind Melon (if actually raining and is not played, this becomes a felony charge)
   

Is this list consistent with other parts of the country? What songs never die on your radio station?

Kerry Meetup

Well, today I decided to face the world of current events and attend my very first political rally. I went to the Kerry Meetup tonight, which is a pretty neat event. Apparently, all over the country, on the fourth Thursday of every month, democrats get together and have a little mini-rally at local establishments. I've never been to anything of the sort before, so I signed up and brought Dangerguy with me.

There were two meetups going on simultaneously, and unfortunately, we chose the wrong one (the coffeehouse rather than the bar) to go to first. There was a small contingent of folks there, and it was more of the disorganized, everyone-needs-to-volunteer type of meeting than we were anticipating. They said that in the other meeting, which was nearby, there was actually an agenda with speakers and stuff, so we took our free buttons and bumper stickers and headed over to the other meeting.

We got to the other meeting late, but they hadn't started yet. In fact, we were parking at the same time as one of the main speakers for the evening. Dangerguy and I got Red Bulls and sat down at pretty much the last table. They had a folk singer for entertainment until things got started, and I have to say, I think they should have gotten someone a little peppier to kick things off. Good thing we thought ahead and got those Red Bulls!

The majority of the speakers for the night were obviously not used to large crowds, did not have organized speech notes, and generally didn't even look like they had practiced. The main speaker of the evening was great though, and provided the most energy of the evening with her "Give President Bush the Pink Slip" rally in which she would call out a statistic like "3 million jobs lost" and the crowd would yell "You're fired!". It was the only point in the night where the room was focused on the event at hand and was really participating.

If you are interested in attending the next one of these in your city, I found out about it a kerry.meetup.com. There is another group that meets the first Wednesday of each month called Democracy For America that also has a meetup site. I haven't been to one of their meetings yet, but I may test it out this week to see how it compares to the Kerry group.

So was it as good as I hoped? Nope. Am I glad I went? Absolutely. And not just for my free button and bumper sticker. It's great to just get out of the house and get involved in the community, even if it is just as a spectator.

I Ran Again Today!

I didn't feel like it today and I have to admit, I was rooting for a thunderstorm, but when it came down to it, I went down to the track today and ran my two miles. Apparently, all of the other people who normally run at the track knew that the humidity was close to 100% and opted not to come out tonight. I walked up to the bench and took off my overshirt, and got my watch ready and then got ready to turn on my MP3 player, and DAMMIT! Out of batteries. Obviously, today was not my day, but I sucked it up and decided to run without my killer MP3 mix. I made it through my two miles, which is all I ask for, but it was not easy. I need my music.

Avoiding the News

Everyday, the same crap is in the news. There is more violence in Iraq, a tit-for-tat little battle between the Kerry and Bush campaigns, an update on whichever music performer or sports star is in court on a given day, blah-blah-blah...

It's not that I don't care about the war in Iraq, or that I am not sincerely rooting for Kerry for president. I'm just tired of reading the same news stories over and over again. Oh, I read the headlines. I might even read the campaign-promise-of the-day. But given the option of reading funny personal blogs or dry, repetitive news stories, I'll risk being ignorant of the world for stories where tears squirt out the corners of my eyes.

I'm not going to click on Al-Sistani returns to Iraq, urges march on Najaf. That's not entertainment. Entertainment is Sheep pine for absent friends: official, which contains links to other such gems as Sheep like happy, smiley people: official and Ducks have regional accents: official. Now that's news.

Launchcast Plug-In

Yesterday, I got my first comment! Woo hoo!

Jeff Hicks invited me to check out his Launchcast plugin for blogs, which is available at http://jrhicks.net/CastInvite. I've tested it out -- it's very cool and has now earned a place on my right sidebar (see right, under "Six Great CDs"). The artist that is shown changes each time the page is loaded, and rotates between the bands I've rated a 90 or better on the Launchcast website. And all I had to do was enter my Yahoo ID into the input field on his form, and it spits out a short piece of code that I have added to my template. So if you've got a blog and a Launchcast channel of your own, this is something that is worth checking out!

Working Late (More Music Reviews)

I don't work late very often, but tonight I am trying to get ahead a little actual work done since I've been in meetings today. Oh and post another list of music reviews. I often have long waits while tests are running or when I am trying to integrate my code (which is tonight's big adventure), and I've already used up all my blog-reading for the day. Tonight's music list is "Six Great CDs You've Never Heard of". I tried to round up the most obscure CDs from my collection that I dearly love, and these are the winners. Enjoy!

Maybe tomorrow I'll move on to books... :)

Olympics - Gymnastics Controversy

Has anyone been watching the Olympics? If you missed the primetime gymnastics coverage last night, you missed quite a show. Last night was the men's high bar competition. The third competitor was Alexei Nemov of Russia, who completed six release moves in a row. I know absolutely nothing about gymnastics, but I was extraordinarily impressed. The two men that went before him completed one or two release moves, but with nowhere near the difficulty of those completed by Nemov. And then the judges scored him a 9.725, which was the lowest score that had been given that evening.

And that's when the fun began.

The crowd at the gymnastics stadium, which in the beginning of the games was sparse and quiet, started booing the judges. Not just a little, but loudly, for eight minutes. Now, I am not a huge fan of sports generally, but I have been to lots of football games, and even a basketball game or two. And I have heard the fans boo and hiss when a particular call was made. But I don't think I've ever seen the referee then say, "You know, they're right. I really botched the call. Give 'em the points after all."

But that's pretty much what happened last night. The crowd booed the judges for 8 minutes straight, during which time the judges huddled and decided to award him an insignificant amount of points to make the crowd happy. Not enough points to make him move up from third place (out of three, with a few more competitors to go). The crowd did not stop booing until Nemov himself asked that they quiet down, and that was only until after Hamm performed. (Hamm got a much higher score for a seemingly less complicated routine.)

Now, who should have medaled and who should not have medaled aside, I am not sure that I like the idea that the crowd could change the score of those competing. The next thing we know, the crowd will be handed out those little remotes like they have in "America's Funniest Home Videos" and they'll just get rid of the judges all together.

I guess this is one of the hazards of having sports where judging is the sum total of the participants score. You can't deny when a ball goes through the hoop, or when a football is carried into the center of the endzone. But these judges have a list of things they are supposed to deduct for, and then apparently just "not see it" when a competitor they like botches their routine.

I think that competitions like gymnastics and figure skating are great fun to watch, but it really spoils the fun when the judges don't seem to be watching the same show. I don't agree with the crowd being able to change the score last night, but I am glad that they did. Maybe this will show the Olympic Committee that there is a need for some more scientific scoring methods in these subjective areas.