Doug's Sounding Board

Hello? Is this thing on? How do I work this thing…

Stupid Why didn’t that get rid of it?

Stupid machines hate me.

$@#$%!

This time Diebold had pictures of the key to the voting machine cabinets on their site. How many times do they have to screw up before they stop being adopted?

Researchers have stored an entire image on a single photon (for a very short while).

Last night’s dinner experiment was Moroccan Chicken. It was very easy to prepare (you don’t have to let chickpeas soak overnight when you buy them in cans) and ends up being very tasty. The recipe should scale down easily too. The only mishap this time is I forgot the lemon juice at the end.

Last week was only 4 days of work but it felt like two work weeks. Saturday was full of errands and after the seemingly long week and the day of errands we flaked on plans and just vegged out at home.

After having played the Nintendo Wii briefly after Thanksgiving, Nicole and I decided it would be our holiday gift to one another. Unfortunately around that time they became impossible to find unless you had nothing else to do during your days except camp at stores hoping for a shipment. On Thursday I heard that a lot of stores were going to have a lot of Wii on Sunday, and GameStop was having $50 off if you traded in your old Gamecube which is a good deal since the Wii plays all those old games. Saturday night I confirmed that GameStop would have some in stock and rather than wait another month for probably the next chance to get one I got up at 4AM and got there at 5AM. No one else arrived until 6:15. By 7:30 there were 5, and by the time the store opened there were probably 40 groups in line for what turned out to be 20 units. A kid waiting for the store open and trying to peer in was singing “Wii” over and over to the tune of the Imperial March, and another kid trying to peer in ended up in a kneeling position that made it look like he was praying for a Wii.

More errands on Sunday kept us from playing it until Sunday night. The dogs seem to be freaked out by the Wii Bowling as we do things they haven’t seen before going through the bowling motions. We actually had to put them in another room. I think they’ll adjust soon enough.

I’m ready for a slow week to relax.

That was last night’s dinner and the recipe is here. It’s spicy but not too hot and is very tasty. This recipe is a keeper. The only problem is that it doesn’t specify how much oil to use to begin with. I guessed at 1/4 cup which was enough for browning the chicken but didn’t leave anything for making the roux. I poured in some more and it was pretty much instantly the target color which I think means it still wasn’t enough. I think 1/2 cup is probably the right amount to start with. If anyone tries this with 1/2 cup oil before I do, let me know if it’s right.

Sunday and Monday when I woke up (6:15AM) the temperature outside was 23 degrees F. Saturday was 27, this morning it was warmer at 25. Many of the plants in the area are freezing, including a good portion that were doing well from the landscaping. I’m hoping they will bounce back, Nicole thinks they’er dead and we’re going to be doing some re-planting.

I’m guessing next month’s PG&E bill will be HUGE!

There are a lot of fire engines zooming around throughout the day, more than in summer months. A lot of people are having chimney fires and wall.floor heater fires.

This morning I had to go back to work and I knew the scooter ride would be slow because the batteries hate that. Instead of 25mph I was cruising at 15-20mph, mostly 15. On the way to work I saw a traffic signal out. I was near downtown so I figured downtown power was out. A number of us couldn’t get into the building until someone came out. Nicole called right after I got in the building and power was out at home too. Turns our that power was out almost everywhere except Watsonville. They say they still don’t know why it happened, but at least it was only out for an hour.

A co-worker got stuck in the elevator and I learned that you can’t pull the doors open like in the movies. I’m sure use of a big lever would have helped but not without breaking something. Turns out there are no emergency lights in the elevator so it took him awhile to find the phone and he definitely couldn’t read the emergency numbers inside.

I like trying new snack foods. Most of the time the new thing isn’t so thrilling, but sometimes I find something I really like. I hadn’t seen three snacks I really liked in awhile so I decided to call the makers and ask what was up…

Lay’s Sensations Sweet Chili & Sour Cream – I think it only was on the market for two months but it instantly jumped to the top of my potato chip list. Kettle cooked with great flavor!

Frito-Lay says that the whole Sensations line of chips wasn’t selling well on a national level but they passed my comments on so I get to home for a resurgence some day.

Hershey’s Kisses Dulce de Leche – White chocolate kisses with dulce de leche in them. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Hershey says that they were a limited edition item but that they are coming back but they don’t know when yet.

Black Cherry Vanilla Coke – I never liked the Cherry Coke and the Vanilla Coke was only good ice cold (not real vanilla). Black Cherry Vanilla Coke has real vanilla and tastes good from ice cold to room temperature.

Coke says that they still make it but that it’s up to the local bottler to produce for our region. They also suggested that I check other stores and gave me the number of the bottler to call, but I haven’t called them yet.

Starting on Thursday I’ve had various Mötley Crüe songs in my head. Not continuously, but they keep returning. So now here I am constructing paper recycling bins and listening to Dr. Feelgood.

Tangentially related, when did Yngwie Malmsteen get fat, and how does that not interfere with his playing?

I rented 18 Fingers of Death because, well, I can’t pass up a title like that. It’s about a kung-fu actor trying to get his next movie made. It’s written and directed and stars James Lew and it’s based on the his experiences in hollywood. Unfortunately it’s not nearly as amusing as it tries to be. The few scenes with Pat Morita are the best in the movie. I’d say it’s barely entertaining.