june 2005
That was the week that was
So, I haven’t really felt like blogging lately, obviously. It’s been nice to be away from the computer, to be honest. But what have I been doing, you ask?
Well, today I went to Black’s Beach in La Jolla for the first time in, ooh, two years or so. The “goat trail” down to the beach from the parking lot had eroded rather a lot since I was last there; it was precipitous, but navigable. My main question, though, is: why on earth do so many people take all that trouble going down to a nude beach (it’s a pretty steep hike down and up), and then leave their clothes on when they get there? What is with that? No one cares!
I finally got to see England’s Futureheads with my friend Amy when they played at SOMA on Monday. I missed them in Vancouver in March when I got sick, so it was great to see them at last. It was a total blast. My ears were still ringing the next afternoon. Before the show, Amy and I were joking about how we would probably be the oldest people there, as it was an all ages show. Sadly, I think we were. I had the depressing realisation during the band’s performance of Hounds of Love that most of the audience probably weren’t even alive when the original version by Kate Bush came out. Yikes.
I’ve been going to the gym a lot. Like, every day. I have a sort of psychological aversion to going, but it’s amazing how much easier it becomes when you go all the time. It becomes a habit rather than a chore. It’s a really good feeling.
I got a new flash-based mp3 player, the Creative MuVo TX FM. It won out over the iPod Shuffle due to its built-in FM tuner and voice recorder, and to the fact that it fits so neatly inside a closed fist. I can manipulate all of its controls with one thumb without having to look, so it’s perfect for listening to while running. (Did I mention that having good music really helps at the gym? I don’t think I could get through it without that.)
Robbie and I cooked Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango last night. I’ve had it many times at Thai restaurants, and just love it. It came out pretty well, even if I say so myself. I never realized just how fattening this stuff is until I saw the ingredients list, though. Coconut milk is like a heart attack in a can.
I read some books, watched some movies, and attempted to make a DJ mix. Evidently, I’ll have to try again on the latter. Oh well, practice makes perfect!
And that’s about it. Now I’m off for cocktails and beefless stroganoff!
26 june 2005 ~ 18:33 
Heatstroke
So, I had a relaxing few days at Harrah’s Rincon. Robbie likes to play their slots, and gets several free nights there a month in return, which is great as it’s a very nice hotel with a beautiful pool (with outdoor hot tubs). I sat by the pool much of the time, reading. Even with sunblock, however, I got a little too much sun, and felt a bit weird the rest of the week. Sort of woozy and dizzy. I almost blacked out at the gym on Wednesday, which was rather scary.
I watched the Michael Jackson verdict being announced live on television at the poolside bar. The reaction of the people there was one of bewilderment: daiquiris were held frozen in mid-air as jaws dropped progressively further with each “Not Guilty.” Afterwards, no one said anything at all. I mean, what can you say, really? I think everyone was just thinking, “Wow.” I know I was.
It’s hot and sunny again today, but I’d really better watch my sun exposure from now on. I’d look a bit silly with a wide-brimmed hat and a parasol, but I can stay indoors, drink iced tea, and update my Flickr photos. I uploaded a bunch of photos from Canada this morning, with more to come.
19 june 2005 ~ 12:31
It would be, it would be so nice
Enough of this grey weather. We’re off to a hotel/resort, where it’s supposed to be 85 degrees and sunny for the next few days. I’m going to sit by the pool and catch up on my reading.
Back on Tuesday.
11 june 2005 ~ 22:52
The filthiest people alive
This is a fantastic time for fans of John Waters. Not only does the DVD of his last movie, A Dirty Shame, come out next Tuesday, but also to be released on the same day is a new DVD box set of seven of his films:
Conspicuously absent from this list are Serial Mom (my personal favourite) and Cecil B. Demented (probably his weakest offering, but with good moments nonetheless), as well as his pre-Flamingos work. You can buy those separately, though.
But best of all is, at long last, the DVD release of Cry-Baby (director’s cut!), which has until now been pretty hard to find. It’s amazing that a film by such a beloved director, and starring someone as famous as Johnny Depp, would have taken this long to merit a DVD release. It comes out on July 12, and will be going for about $14.
I’m so happy I could…oh, I won’t say it. You know how I hate the brown word.
9 june 2005 ~ 22:33
Baked apple
While I was on the treadmill at the gym the other day, I watched the effervescent Rachael Ray making baked apples on Food Network’s 30 Minute Meals. Sounds healthy, but in fact they were loaded with brown sugar and butter, and served with about a gallon of caramel ice cream. Watching cookery shows while working out may seem like a mismatch, but I get a kind of vicarious energy boost from looking at all the delicious food. It actually helps. So does good music.
If I owned a gym, I’d have a live DJ spinning tunes, and I’d have the smell of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls pumped into the room, like they blow the smell of baking bread around supermarkets. That would pack them in.
Talking of baked Apples, I just had to completely wipe my iPod and reload it from scratch. I was worried I’d lose everything, but it’s all OK.
Something weird can happen if you use an iPod with Windows, and store your mp3s on an external drive, as I do. Because Windows automatically assigns the next available drive letter to any storage device you plug in, that drive letter can vary, depending on how many devices are already attached. (This doesn’t happen on a Mac, of course.) However, the location of your iTunes folder, including its drive letter, is fixed in your iTunes preferences. Ay, there’s the rub.
I guess I must sometimes have had other devices plugged in when I attached my external hard drive, and other times not, resulting in the absolute path to my music files changing each time. As a result, iTunes could only ever find some of my mp3s; the rest were on a nonexistent path.
For future reference, there’s an easy way to fix this. Attach your external drive, then open diskmgmt.msc (a Windows utility - launch it by going to Start > Run and entering its name). Right-click on the external drive’s icon, then select Change Drive Letter and Paths, then change its drive letter to something really high in the alphabet (I chose X). That leaves plenty of room for other devices to be plugged in without causing your chosen drive letter to shift. From now on, your external drive will always show up with that same letter, even after rebooting. Well, mine does, so far.
I was surprised how quickly my 40GB of mp3s reloaded themselves onto my iPod - it only took a few minutes. Doing this seemed to improve its seek time for tracks too. I supposed it was a bit like defragmenting it, after months of file deletion and addition splintering the drive. Maybe I’ll go ahead and reload the thing every so often anyway.
9 june 2005 ~ 13:32
Worst product name ever?
Yes, I think so.
Ironically, despite the fact that these black liquorice pellets are intended to promote “clarity of voice,” finding this item in a British confectionery shop in Victoria, Canada, rendered me speechless.
For the record, they taste foul.
5 june 2005 ~ 20:18
A real pig’s ear
The Jacaranda trees are in full bloom at the moment all around San Diego. So beautiful.
So, Robbie and I went with our friend Dan to a Vietnamese sandwich shop on El Cajon Boulevard yesterday. I had been meaning to get one of those Vietnamese sandwiches that people rave about for a long time, but had never actually done it, probably because all of my experiences with Vietnamese food have been regrettable. For example, my previous visit to a Vietnamese restaurant (at what is supposed to be one of the best in San Diego) involved a bowl of lukewarm broth filled with lumps of chicken bone, fat, and gristle. Totally inedible. That experience made me scared to set foot inside a Vietnamese restaurant for years.
Anyway, I ordered a barbecue pork sandwich, Robbie chose a ham sandwich, and Dan got spring rolls. It all sounded perfectly innocuous. We sat and waited hungrily.
Then the food arrived.
The pork in my sandwich was rubbery and about 75% fat, so I removed it all; the sandwich was OK without it, but it was really just bread and a few vegetables. Robbie’s was far worse. He pulled an unidentifiable piece of meat out of it, and just then a Vietnamese woman walked by and, rolling her eyes, shouted at him, “If you’re going to eat a Vietnamese sandwich, you have to eat it properly! The pig’s ear makes it crunchy!”
The pig’s ear (call me ethnocentric, but sorry, that’s just disgusting) was promptly discarded, and Robbie got one more bite into the sandwich before he realized that it was filled with liver pâté. That was it. The rest of the sandwiches went in the trash, and we were out the door.
I hate to judge an entire ethnic cuisine on some bad experiences, but every time I’ve had Vietnamese food, it’s been terrible. I don’t think it’s me, because I love Thai and Japanese food. Maybe it’s just the unpalatable ingredients in Vietnamese food that make it impossible for me to stomach it. After all, they say you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear…
5 june 2005 ~ 14:13
Everything’s gone green
I’ve simplified and cleaned up for summer, as you’ve probably noticed by now. This design is probably completely broken outside Firefox for Windows, but I now have access to Apple computers again at my old workplace just up the street, so I’ll check it out soon.
I went to rejoin my old gym yesterday, whereupon I discovered that they’ve recently instated a $65 “initiation fee,” which I’ll have to pay even though I’ve been a member there before. It wouldn’t bother me so much if I were going to be a member permanently, but for only two or three months that’s a bit of a stinger. Oh well, I’ll probably do it anyway. Just not today, as I stood on a piece of glass this morning, and I get a stab of pain through my foot about every tenth step I take.
It’s cloudy here. O Sun, why hast thou forsaken me?
2 june 2005 ~ 14:49