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- December 23, 2004
Go Team!
December 23, 2004Read moreJohn Doerr is a VC with an apparently great track record, and does a Question and Answer session with Fast Company. He confirms the mental calculus that’s been churning in the back of my mind recently: a great team is everything. Worth reading, if you’re thinking about raising some hell with your own company some day. However, it’s the kind of advice that you will have had to experience before you really get it. Via jd.
- December 23, 2004
The Good Stuff
December 23, 2004Read more
Dad brought some special tea, called Pu Erh Tea. It’s fermented, aged and compressed into a cake that you have to pick apart yourself.
You can see the shrink-wrapped brick in the red box (Dad says it just says Pu Erh Tea). It takes quite a bit of effort to scrape the leaves off the main brick enough so that it can actually be brewed. Since we were splitting this brick between my sister and myself, it was necessary to crack it in half.
The tea itself is a mild, red tea that has a kind of earthy taste. Not as strongly flavored as black or green tea, it’s sort of faintly fragrant. The Wiki article says that there’s mold that forms on the compressed cake as it ages that contributes to the earthy flavor. Sort of like cheese, I suppose.
Some of the fancier cakes have shapes embossed in them.
- December 22, 2004
Retail Greetings
December 22, 2004Read moreYes, literally retail greetings. I guess it’s a crazy time of year for mall employees, but it still irks me when I go up to, say, the Cinnabon counter, and get nothing but a disassociated stare in return. A “Hi! How Can I Help You?” would be nice, even expected. Thinking it was me, I’ve been adjusting my approach to be a touch more benevolent, even jolly. Not much effect.
I wonder if I’m getting profiled: Large, puffy asian man with bad hair. Demanding demeanor. Probably an asshole who’s going to give me a hard time about there not being enough cinnamon on his f**ing bun and try to get a discount, because his bitchy wife and kids emasculate him at home. *Shields Up! Or maybe they’re just poorly trained, or tired. But the person in front of me in line seems to get the standard how-de-do.
Maybe I’m imagining it, but next time I’m out, I’ll have to try some different warm-up routines. Use different eye contact. Or wear a shirt with a collar.
Or maybe ignore their lack of retail salesmanship and get on with my life. :-)
- December 21, 2004
Soup is Good Food
December 21, 2004Read moreI have a toothache, which has done wonders to surpress my apetite. Having not slept well for several days due to the throbbing pain, I have resorted to gumming my food on the right side of my mouth and avoiding all things that fall outside of “tepid” in terms of temperature.
However, today I had a culinary breakthrough: Campbell’s Southwestern Chicken Verde Soup + White Bread = Toothache Friendly Fare. It’s sort of like Chicken A La King over bread. Nice and soft. Slurpable. Spicy enough, with small bits of chicken that are easily swallowed. I’m sure this will work with the other fine Campbell’s cream-based soups. I think the Chicken Verde is a bit too strong by itself, but on white bread it’s better. On toast it would probably be pretty good too.
I’ve got a dentist appointment later today, so I’ll be back to solid foods soon. But just in case, I’m slow cooking a beef roast in the crock pot at this very moment.
- December 19, 2004
3D Hard Output for Cheap
December 19, 2004Read more
Create your own 3D paper sculptures from common 3D formats! Pepakura Designer allows you to import a 3D model from a program like 3D Studio Max and create a paper version of it that you can cut and glue together. I’m not sure how involved it is, but it looks pretty cool. It’s shareware, costing $38 online via the site. The galleries feature robots, planes, spaceships, people, and abstract shapes. One guy created paper versions of rally cars…you can even download PDFs from his site to print and construct your own. Via BoingBoing.
