bird bird water foot sun waterpot lasso (egyptian for: "welcome to my blog")
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tasty Water
I think it's weird that water is one of the only things humans consume that we actually prefer with less taste. And that desire has totally escalated in the past 20 years.
When I was like 6 and I wanted water, I went to the fridge and used that water dispenser attached to the freezer. I had NO IDEA that the water coming out of that dispenser came from the same place as the water out of the faucet at the kitchen sink. And for some reason, I thought the water from the bathroom faucet was not for human consumption.
18 years later, I rarely drink tap water because my tongue is conditioned to drink the liquid out of the bottle, or at least out of one of those huge jugs. Sure, I'll drink out of a tap if there is nothing else, or if I'm at a water fountain at a park, or if I'm in the East Bay (the water there tastes so much better than anywhere else, honestly. Look it up.) Maybe you drink out of a Brita filter; I did when I was in Davis because the tap water there is...how do I put this...um...let's see...farty? Is that a word?
Anyway, I just bought a Brita filter for the house because we discontinued our water delivery, as it was way too expensive. But I do wonder if we are all conditioning ourselves to have weak stomachs because we don't deal with the "tastiness" that comes out of the tap. What with flouride and lead and all that.
By the way, the title of this post refers to a time when I was 12 and Mom told me I couldn't eat anything until dinner (it was like 3:30; I was getting to be quite overweight). I asked her what I could eat, and she said: "You can have water." My brother thought this was hilarious and kept saying "TASTY WATER!" for the rest of the afternoon.
This is the second drink-related post in 10 minutes. I'm going to go use that Brita filter.
I don't get why orange juice has to be refrigerated. I mean, I understand why you would WANT to keep it cold, because it's way more delicious that way. But I want to know why you can't keep it outside of the fridge with the cap on tight for like 2 days, and then put it in the fridge and drink it after that.
Actually, I'm basing this whole post on the assumption that the "KEEP REFRIGERATED" warning on the side of the carton is an order, as opposed to a suggestion. If a reader who is in the citrus growing industry could help me out with this, that would be great. Julius, I'm looking at you...
(I don't actually know a Julius, but I figure that if I knew someone who worked with oranges, I'd want to call him Julius.)
Bert's BBQ in Austin burned down last week, and there's a pretty interesting story concerning how the dispatcher handled the initial 911 call. Apparently, the dispatcher thought the caller was seeing the white smoke of a large amount of meat being cooked at a very low temperature (what I call "God's Beard"):
Dispatch says, "OK, does it smell like the wood? Or does it smell like something else is on fire?" Caller says, "No, it smells like wood. There's a lot of it. I was just going across the street, and I could smell it. There's, like, all this, you know, bit of a hazy smoke around here." Dispatch says, "Well, could they be smoking their briskets?" Caller says, "No, that's not brisket."
"You could tell something was burning," Perez said. "It's not brisket. It's not sausage that is burning."
At the end of Joel's call, the dispatcher finally sends out firefighters to Bert's Bar-B-Q, some 45 minutes after the first call. And that's huge, considering it would have taken firefighters 45 seconds to get there. After all, the fire station is right down the street.
And the end right there is the most ridiculous part. I lived three blocks away from Bert's for a while, and I walked down to MLK Boulevard a couple times a week to get food. The walk from the fire station to Bert's is less than a minute, or close to it; couldn't someone have gone over and looked?
Anyway, it sucks for them, because the restaurant is pretty much charred inside. I went there once, and the manager was really nice...although as I took my food home, I saw one of the workers looking through the dumpster outside for some reason...ew. As for the 'cue itself, I ate the food there in 2005, and I remember the meaty beef rib and the sausage being pretty tasty, while everything else was standard pretty standard for Texas BBQ. I'd say it probably ranks somewhere in the 11-15 range in Austin--nothing memorable, but still pretty good.
I think I'm gonna use the smoker this weekend and make some beef.
I think Charles Barkley did this once with Barney. This video is four years old and I still love it:
In retrospect, I should have paid John 5 bucks to put up shots that I could block easily and made a much more exciting video. He was actually pretty good, too. I might need to refilm this with me wearing a headband.
EDIT: Okay, just to let everyone know, John is practically my cousin and he had a lot of fun doing this. I showed this to some of the parents of the kids I coached in little league and they said that this was basically the exact opposite of me. I guess that's what makes it fun.
It seems that Microsoft Corp. has paid a freelance writer to "correct" Wikipedia articles related to the company, and the online community-edited encyclopedia is not too happy about it:
"Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft."
I love Wikipedia, but it has to be understood that all pages are technically written from a subjective viewpoint. Yes, mass proofreading can help to smooth over wayward opinions, but you'll still have constant editing wars over subjects like political figures and the like. Wikipedia is a fantastic source when talking with your friends about Arrested Development as you scarf down a burger at In-n-Out...not so much when you are debating foreign policy with your Political Science professor.
Meanwhile, an 18 year-old at Ohio State just cited this blog entry in her scholarly paper for her Freshman Writing class.
We all had a good time at our first basketball practice of the season this last Sunday. And by "we all" I mean "I", and by "our" I mean "my", and by "good time" I mean "I drove 20 minutes each way to shoot around on a shoddy rim by myself when I could have stayed home and used our glass backboard and not even have had to get in my car." That's what I get for scheduling practice in between two NFL playoff games.
On the bright side, the enjoyment/cooking-time ratio of my spaghetti dinner that night was pretty high, so that's good.
Later today, I'm going to the first of many weddings in 2007. Gina and Pavel, two people who joined our church and were baptized just a few years ago, are having their ceremony at St. George in Campbell and their reception at--of all the extremely accesible, low stress facilities in the South Bay--our house (Mom did offer). I will be driving people from their cars to the front door, as nearby parking is limited.
So I ask you today, friends and family members: which of the following will occur first?
A) A kid falls in the pool B) Mom pulls out the Roombas C) Smoke alarm goes off D) Someone clogs the super-low-flush toilet E) A kid falls in the super-low-flush toilet and Mom tries to clean up with a Roomba (which then explodes, setting off smoke alarm)
I still eat Lucky Charms--I'm sure most of you still eat sugary cereal, too--and frankly I DO think they're magically delicious. But let me tell you what you shouldn't do:
Don't save all the marshmallows for the end. Don't do it. If you want to know what it's like, pour yourself a shot of milk and add two tablespoons of sugar to it. Seems fantastic in theory, right?
Brian and I have been doing some plyometrics the last three weeks and I have been using my Jumpsoles. If you want a full description and sales pitch, you can go to the Jumpsoles website; the best way for me to quickly describe them is that they are weighted platforms that attach to the front of your shoes, and you wear them to increase the workout for your feet and calves.
Maybe your wondering why I'm using Jumpsoles. Well, I'll tell you anyway. There are three things you need to know: 1) I can't jump as high as I'd like to, 2) I'm only 5'9", and 3) jumping high is advantageous in the Sport of Basket Ball. I would love to grow taller but most people stop growing before they turn 24, so I'm not counting on that. I'd also love to invent some sort of basketball game where average-height, small-vertical-leap people have an advantage over tall people. It probably won't catch on.
I've decided to change Point 1, meaning I'd like to be able to jump higher. The Jumpsoles 8-week program supposedly adds 5 to 10 inches to your vertical leap. You should see the testimonials--they are windows into the soul of Caucasian high school basketball players in Ohio. They read like this:
"I decided to use JUMPSOLES before my freshman year in high school. I arrived on campus as the only freshman who could dunk! I was doing WINDMILL DUNKS with my LEFT HAND--and I'm only 5'8" and 14 years old!!! At the first game, after a SWEET BREAKAWAY DUNK, I heard cheers from the crowd: "That white boy can dunk!" My new nickname is Springy Springmeister!"
I'm not gonna fall for these testimonials of people I've never met. Luckily for me, my cousin's friend Symon said that he used Jumpsoles and they DO work. He said he gained about 6 inches on his vertical leap after 8 weeks. Sounds good to me!
Sweet Coptic Basketball Action is only 143 days away, and I do want to improve this year. Yes, I was second in the league in rebounds last season, but my brother was first, and unfortunately he won't be playing with us this year as he'll be married and living on the East Coast. An increased vertical leap will help my shooting as well as my defense. Who knows...with Jumpsoles and a weight loss program, maybe I can write a testimonial:
"I'm 24 and I play in a church basketball league. I was JUST OKAY last season. After using JUMPSOLES, I can do DOUBLE-PUMP LAYUPS now! I did a sweet WNBA-STYLE LAYUP this season and I heard someone in the crowd say 'HE JUST MADE A LAYUP.' Thanks JUMPSOLES!!!!"
