Larry

Work related

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:13:58 GMT

LIVID!!!!

EDIT: and slightly drunk

Chicken Salad

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:24:51 GMT

Last night I rummaged through some passover leftovers and I made the best chicken salad EVER! I figured I'd share the recipe with you. I can't give you measurement or anything. All I can say is that it was done till "it looked right"

First i sliced 4 cloves of garlic and toasted them with a handful of pine nuts. Its very easy to over-toast them to burn so watch carefully and keep them moving in the pan.

Next I took all of our leftover chicken - both that BBQ grilled stuff I made and whatever chicken parts were left in the chicken soup. I chopped them up and put them in a bowl. Probably about 3 cups worth. To this I added the pine nuts and garlic.

I chopped 4 stalks of celery and an apple and added that. I added a teaspoon each of of onion mix, sweet curry, and black pepper. I added 3 tablespoons of mayo. Mixed well. Then I added a handful of raisins. Mixed again. And finally I added a squirt of lime juice.

Yummy. Nom Nom.

After dinner Kate and I took Gryphon for a walk. We went to visit Regina at Ben & Jerrys for free cone day. Sadly we got there an hour after they stopped giving out free clones. They were closing for the night. So we headed to Cold Stone instead. Surprise surprise - Regina, Dante, AJ and Janice were all there for the same reason. So we too partook of the delicious then went back home for Law and Order and some sleep.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:50:00 GMT

Last night Kate and I went to best buy and I bought that 37in Samsung series 5 HDTV. It was all purchased on gift card so it was like a freebie. I want to thank everyone who gave me a gift card in the last two years that led up to this point for help with this purchase. It fits perfectly in my entertainment center. Of course now I need to call my cable company and upgrade to HD and get a new cable box. I'll likely have them come to the house to hook it up. It occurred to me last night that with the way my cable is configured, I might also need to upgrade my TiVo to an HD model or I won't be able to watch HD channels. We'll see though. That might be a bit much.

Kate got me a gift too on Saturday. She went into Gamestop while I was getting a massage at the Bergen Mall and bought a Wii. Sweet! She hooked that up after I finished setting up the TV. So far we've mostly been creating those Mii guys and played a little bowling. We're gonna continue exploring tonight.

I suppose the next technological bits I need to save up for are an HD TiVo and a BlueRay DVD player. Keeping up with the Jonses. Or the CarrieAndRyans as it were.

On a completely unrelated note. Last night I had a dream. And today that dream actually happened. Weeeeeird.

my very own Seder.

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:42:38 GMT

Kate and I ran our first Seder and by all accounts it was a rousing success. Largely the text was in English but Michal and I did some hebrew parts. Dramatic reading was encouraged as was drinking and applause. Needless to say a good time was had by all.

Some highlights:

Casey and Shawn Rick-Rolling the seder.

Liz running around hiding the afikomen and slamming doors and cabinets all over the house to confuse us.

Sarah asking the four questions and also finding the afikomen and getting an awesome Tim Curry autograph prize.

eLiz knowing the wine blessing by heart. Regina learning to read Hebrew to say the wine blessing.

Amanda, the lone lesbian at the table, being the one who read about Moses "using the rod you hold in your hand to facilitate incredible experiences."

The impromptu 80s beat box rap of "Who knows one?"

At the end of the seder Scott, who has known me since the 90s said "Larry, I had no clue you were Jewish"

A lot of preparation went into the day so Kate and I were up and about and on our feet starting at 10AM. Kate handled the cleaning, set-up and salads. I handled the cooking. Twenty-two people is a lot to cook for so I pretty much spent all day kitchen. Some lessons learned for next year:

Get a folding table and set it up specifically for interim food storage. The countertop and fridge were too busy/full to be accommodating.

Get a dish washing schedule. Every hour on the hour all dishes should be speedily handwashed. Oh, and get a clock in the kitchen.

If you have to give up making something give up a desert. The cookies would have been delicious, except by the time dinner was over people couldn't even think of desert. Hell halfway through the meal people couldn't think of their meal!

Prepare the food so that it can all go out at once. If not people will fill up before all your food gets served.

Just because there are 22 people there does not mean that everyone will eat one of everything. In light of this make smaller servings - I could have gotten by with one package of chicken instead of four. More people would have eaten the BBQ chicken has it been in nugget form.

Make pot roasts later in the day. Start them at 2.5 hours prior to meal time. They were delicious but it sucked that I had to reheat them.

Call food "adventurous" and you can get people to eat anything. Honestly kishka is probably in the top five of Jewish foods most people wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. But because I called it "an adventurous beef dish" even one of the vegetarians gleefully tried a piece.

Not so much pepper on the bison next time. Kate almost died coughing just walking into the kitchen while I was making it. It sure was damn tasty though.

Matzah balls when put in to boil should be about the size of the tip of your finger. Any larger and they will end up coming out of the pot the size of a softball.

Non-dairy coffee cream taste like white out. There is no amount of sweetener in the world that will salvage it.

People really liked the food and I've been getting a pretty good stream of compliments since then. The homemade salmon gefilte fish went over well as did (and i am still in shock) the kishka. Ryan really liked the chopped liver. Everyone liked the bison. The charoset was the best charoset I ever had. The sabra salad was entirely devoured. And of course my mother's delicious matzah cake was a hit. There were a few dishes I wanted to make that I didn't have time for - the cookies, the fried matzah and the toasted pine nuts. But I suppose it all balances in the end because we have a ton of leftovers regardless of the unmade dishes. We have chicken, farfel stuffing, chicken soup, matzah balls, salad, and fruit salad enough to have a whole other seder tonight.

Special thanks to everyone who brought chairs, Laura for liberating the sales table from the theatre, Amanda for the mid day dishes help (affording me a few minutes to sit down), Regina for being my taste-tester, Dani who helped make the gefilte fish, and particularly eLiz who helped so much with the clean-up effort - its hard to thank her enough she helped so much. Kate and I look forward to doing this again next year.

L'shana habah b'yerushalayim

PS - everyone who fed and/or made out with the dog last night, he really wants you to come over again soon. Apparently copious amounts of food and being drunk on wine leads to some deep seated desire to make out with Corgis. Who knew?

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:50:27 GMT

In the Haggadah we read about the 4 sons and their inquiry about the Passover ritual. One wise, on wicked, one simple and one who does not even know to ask.

The second son is the wicked son. He asks "What do these customs in which you engage mean, which the Lord commanded you to observe". He is still asking about the passover, but specifically he is excluding himself form the proceedings. He's kind of a dick asking "So... what's all this stuff matter to you?" The translation of the response you give him varies in translation from Haggadah to Haggadah. All agree that you tell him that had he been in Egypt at the time of the Exodus, he wouldn't have been saved. But the preface to it is what varies. Some sidestep it by saying "Get his attention" or "Set him on edge". But literally translated its "Punch him in the teeth"

This amuses me to no end every year (as do several other bits of the seder that usually can only be enjoyed in the context of being at my mothers house and laughing loudly with my brothers). The thought of a religious text condoning belting someone in the mouth. The picture of a righteous old Rabbi knocking out his jerk kids incisors. This is made even more amusing as many of the ornate illustrated haggadahs out there have illustrations of the four sons. My mother has a really fancy one that has painted pages. Man that kid looks like a jerk and MAN do I wanna punch his teeth out.

I stumbled on some interesting reading this year about an explanation of this all. Its from the Chabad Lubavitch. See in hebrew there is this concept of gematria. Sounds kinda like geometry right? Its actually numerology. Each hebrew letter translates to a numerical value. The sum of those letters means each word also had a numerical value. A wicked person is called a rasha in Hebrew. The word for a pure person is tzaddik. The numerical value of rasha is 570. The numerical value of tzaddik is 204. The difference between them is 366. "His teeth" in Hebrew is shinav. Its numerical value...366. So essentially telling you to "take out his teeth" is actually saying get past his wickedness to his purity.

Neat

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:03:32 GMT

Unless there is a better version for me to print out and use Sunday night, I believe this is the Haggadah we are using: http://scheinerman.net/judaism/pesach/haggadah.pdf

I like the Katz Haggadah but it might be a bit too traditional for my attendees.

If anyone attending would like to bring something bring a bottle of Kosher for Passover wine. We have 6 bottles but with 4 cups each person we might need more. Be sure to ask the guy at the liquor store if its in fact Kosher for Passover wine if you buy it. DO NOT BRING FOOD. Oh, and a chair. We need chairs.

Thank you Liz for sending this my way :-)

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:35:12 GMT

hehehe i'm famous: http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/014322.html

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:16:24 GMT

So the other night Kate and I ran a bunch of errands. On the way home we swung by Best Buy with my massive accumulated gift card that I have been collecting over the last several years. I have nearly $2000. My plan was to buy a nice entertainment center when I move into my own house. But I tossed around the idea of getting a flat panel TV with the card now. Largely this was inspired by seeing Carrie and Ryan's awesome flat panel TV. Since then, and since going to Best Buy, I've been jonesing for an upgrade. They didn't have the model I wanted in stock at the store I was at so I instead looked on their website. I narrowed it down to the following 4 options:

LG 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV 37LG50 - $1,299.99
Samsung 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV LN37A550 - $1,399.99
Sharp AQUOS 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV LC-37D62U - $1,599.99
Sharp AQUOS 37" 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV LC-37GP1U - $1,699.99
Compare the 4 TVs here

If any of my tech friends has any input on which TV is best by all means speak up. Or if you think I should wait it out because better prices and better TVs are around the corner, also say your piece.

Buying a TV does mean some other expenses beyond just the TV. Theres also extra cost for cable service and possibly upgrading to a new TiVo. Thats likely not gonna happen though. We just got our series 2. A series 3 can wait a year. Still, the extra added cable expenses might make me not give in to temptation.

bmajors posted her awesome ebay find, now its my turn

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:24:26 GMT

Picture is under a cut because its NSFW for some:

I've been looking for this magazine for the last 15 years. I'm amazed it actually turned up. Ebay is both the best and worst thing thats happened to the Rocky Horror collectors market. Best in that I don't think I'd have ever found it, or many other items otherwise. Worst in that several items like the scrapbook, movie novel and Mexican album have gone down in value.

It was part of a package of 20 magazines from the seventies. Having looked through them all I gotta say that theres maybe 10% of women in there who are remotely attractive. I could write a whole post about that.

The bidding went pretty high on the item. Which leads me to believe that there were other Rocky Horror bidders in on it, other porn magazine bidders on it, or other porn magazine bidders who've I've pestered over the years looking for this particular magazine bidding on it. Ebay bidders - except for the winning bid - are now anonymous.

EDIT: As an FYI, for anyone else looking, its volume 11 issue 4 (published quarterly). Hi-res scans coming shortly.

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:43:33 GMT

Passover products never cease to amaze me. You can likely go an entire year without eating pancakes and never noticing. On passover you are supposed to avoid most grain products, except for matzah. But of course some people just HAVE to have pancakes for breakfast. Its just boggles my mind.

Ironically I bet the syrup tastes delicious because its not made with corn syrup. One of the biggest Passover no-nos is foods made from corn. This is actually why Passover is such a big pain in the ass to observant American Jews. Just about every processed food product in American supermarkets contains one of two things: Corn Syrup or Maltodextrin. Corn Syrup you are all probably familiar with. Despite being worse for you by most health experts standards, its cheaper to use than sugar so manufacturers love it. Maltodextrin is a filler. Its sole purpose is to make things look more perceivable as what its supposed to be. For example, its used to make a packet of Splenda equal in size weight and measure to a packet of Sugar. You only need 1/600th the amount of sucralose to attain the sweetness of sugar. The rest of the splenda packet is mostly maltodextrin. You can buy products made with splenda for passover use, but not splenda itself for home use because of this.

On the flip side of this coin though, Passover gives you the opportunity to taste a lot of food how they should taste if made with sugar. Find a Kosher-for-Passover bottle of Coca-Cola. Its the one with the yellow cap. Its so much better. Also be on the look out for Kosher-for-Passover U-Bet chocolate syrup. Best chocolate milk you'll ever have.

On a final note if anyone is interested in attending Sunday night Seder at my apartment please let me know. During the Seder participants declare in Aramaic an invitation to all who are hungry or needy to join in the Seder. Its probably a bit late at that point so I'm extending the invitation here and now in English.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:24:00 GMT

This is an odd sensation that I have been having for the last week. My back feels... nauseous? I can't quite pinpoint it. Its not pain. Its just general ickiness in my dorsal region.

Urgh

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:30:39 GMT

For no explicable reason I can conjecture my browser suddenly started taking an extra long time to open today. This happens every time I open a new browser window. Probably adds 30-45 seconds of lag time to open the page. Rebooting did not help. Neither did clearing my history. I am using IE6 on Windows 2000 Server. I can't upgrade to IE7 on this platform. Firefox works fine. So does Safari. But my IE6, which is the main browser I use is making me all fist-shakey.

Yes... this is awful. But if your a front end developer nerd its brilliant.

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:00:10 GMT

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:08:30 GMT

More great Hollywood auctions, this time from auction house Profiles In History who always has some great stuff. You can see the full list here. A few of my favorites:

King Kong six-sheet poster $200,000 (one of only three originals in existence)
Ming the Merciless cape from Flash Gordon $40,000 (from the 1930's Flash Gordon, not quite as cool to me as the 1980s one would be)
Original Lord of The Rings Poster Art $30,000
3 Fifth Element costumes - Willis/Jovovich/Tucker $30,000
Han Solo blaster components from Star Wars ROTJ $20,000
Batman #1 unrestored comicbook - Joker & Catwoman $20,000
Burnt Claudia & Madeleine - Interview w/ Vampire $3,500
Book of the Dead cover and page from The Evil Dead $2,500
Monkey head - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom $1,500

I was a lot less forgiving with what I selected for my post this time. There are plenty of other cool items from movies like the monster Squad, Congo, Indiana Jones, the Batman series, and Star Trek. Definitely check out the list.

I'm gonna be there, ain't we all viewers?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:23:03 GMT

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:01:50 GMT

So bullets points update. I can expound on any points if requested in comments:

Thursday night was Purim. Kate and I went to synagogue dressed as pirates. We lost the costume contest to a toddler dressed as Yoda. This was not the first time I lost a contest to someone dressed as Yoda. The wound still stings.

Friday night I went to moms and looked at all the stuff she has been asking me to clean up. Its not that messy but holy crap do I have a lot of stuff.

Saturday during the day was spent getting zombie night together. The theatre sold out and the show was really good overall.

Sunday was spent recovering, showering, watching TV and making dinner for five.

Today my intentions of taking my car in to the repair shop to have the brakes checked out was thwarted by having a dead battery. I think it might be time to retire the couchpedition.

Some Zombie inspiration for zombie night.

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:58:58 GMT

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:48:45 GMT

So I posted not too long ago that my laptop fell. Its still under warranty. I need to back up the files to my work computer. i managed to get the drive out of my machine and I hooked it up using a cable my IT department lent me. The USB 2.0 Drive Mate. Its pretty awesome. The cable can hook up to a 2.5, 3.5 or SATA drive. Trouble is my hard drive does not want to play nice. I can read all my file. i can even open them. But apparently when i try to copy them en masse my drive freaks and throws I/O errors. Any of the nerd friends on my LJ have any suggestions?

On other weird ebay stuff

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:48:20 GMT

Weeeeird: http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300207033813

Why is stuff I've given away being sold on ebay. And why do I have a hint of a desire to buy it.

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:06:07 GMT

I posted a long laundry list of cool auction items on ebay a few months back. There is another really cool auction going on right now. Click here and scroll through to see some of the cool stuff. I spent a good chunk of last night oooing and ahhing over this stuf with Jai. Peruse the whole list for more, but these are a few really cool ones.

Odd Job Hat From "Goldfinger" - $37,500
Michael Keaton "Batman Returns" Costume - $37,500
Wicked Witch's Hat From "The Wizard Of Oz" - $30,000
Reeve's Costume From "Superman" - $30,000
Harrison Ford "Indiana Jones" Bullwhip - $25,000
Batman Shakespeare Bust - $25,000
Charlton Heston "Ten Commandments" Costume - $15,000
Houdini Burlap Straight Jacket - $12,500
Brandon Lee Coat From "The Crow" - $7,500
Life Preserver Prop from "Jaws" - $7,500
Yul Brynner "The Ten Commandments" Helmet - $7,500
Charlie Chaplin Cane From "Modern Times" - $5,000
Jim Carrey Coat And Hat From "The Mask"
Holy Grail From "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade" - $4,000 (you have chosen wisely)
"Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade" Chalice - $4,000 (you have chosen poorly)
Lucille Ball "I Love Lucy" Top Hat - $4,000
Andy Warhol Paintbrush - $4,000
"Creature From the Black Lagoon" Mask - $3,000
Warren Beatty Trenchcoat From "Dick Tracy" - $2,500
"Superman" Prop Newspaper - $2,500
"Highlander" Sword - $2,000
Erik Estrada "CHiPs" Uniform - $2,000
Angelica Huston "Addams Family Values" Dress - $1,750
Raul Julia Suit From "Addams Family Values" - $1,500
Ursa's costume from "Superman II" - $1,000
Butch Patrick's "Munsters" Costume - $1,000
Alex's Clockwork Orange Bowler Hat - $750
"Flash Gordon" Mask - $500
Dom Deluise Captain Chaos costume from "Cannonball Run" - $400

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:57:45 GMT

On the Spitzer fiasco, AM New York wrote a story covering "Kristen" and how now that she's moved to infamy her MySpace page has exploded and in one day, by selling millions of copies of two crappy songs, she has made a million dollars.

The lesson learned form this: fame pays even more than discretion does, although sometimes you need to play the discretion card to get there.

I'm a bit amused by the dichotomy of society (me included) wanting Spitzer brought down for his hypocrisy (although i applaud him for a quick resignation - Larry Craig take note), but for the prostitute in question (and yeah, its illegal on that side of the coin too) to be given a million dollars and to be offered promises of more to come in the future (Hustler spread coming soon).

Personally, if prostitution was legal none of this would be a problem. Its really a bit of an ambiguous gray area as was shown by Jay Barnes in his post: "Maybe the dog just isn't into you?" (which I highly recommend reading). If Spitzer does one thing before he leaves office - make prostitution legal and all of his troubles go away. Well except for his wife... Silda.

Honestly, her mother named her Silda? And then she married someone names Spitzer? Did she trade up from her maiden name of "Mildahilda" or something?

Ganked from sui_generis

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:45:37 GMT

Atlantic City Rocky Horror Convention Update

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:19:58 GMT

Ganked from liz beaux

We are currently scheduled for September 27th, 2008 at the House of Blues in Atlantic City for a Midnight showing of RHPS. The venue is located on the Boardwalk, adjacent to the Showboat and the Taj Mahal.

More details, and convention hotel/booking info to follow as soon as we have the contracts signed!

p.s. atlanticcitycon

Snopes fact of the day

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:22:49 GMT

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp

The phrase "We only use X% of our brain" (x is usually 10) has come up a few times recently. I heard it at The Paranormal Show and immediately my mind went "Hrm, you know I never questioned that till I heard it from someone who was deliberately trying to play tricks". Then I watched House and saw them do an fMRI with various regions of the brain flashing in a fancy graphic on a computer screen. Now I know House is not a reliable source of information, but it made me wonder. Again this conversation came up when talking psychology with Kate and Dante. Today I looked it up. And lo and behold Snopes has it. The most convincing part (read "duh factor") of the article is the brain damage bit. No one ever got shot in the skull but didn't suffer any problems because the bullet only damaged the 90% we don't use.

Man, talk about covering your bases...

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:43:15 GMT

From the Dave & Busters Special Event Contract:

Food & Beverage
Any food or food item(s) remaining at the conclusion of the event are considered property of the event Host and may be taken off premises. Foods left behind after the event's party has left will be discarded. In an effort to reduce the possible health and food safety risks involved with leftover foods, Dave & Buster's asks its guests to adhere to the following guidelines: Please refrigerate all leftovers within two (2) hours, reheat all leftovers throughout and to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds (do not heat more than once), consume or discard within 2 or 3 days (fish within 1 or 2 days), and divide all large containers into small ones before refrigerating. Additionally, be advised that reheated spinach has been found to form cancer causing compounds when combined with stomach acid. Host acknowledges that the handling and storage of any leftover food items are the Host's sole responsibility and Host agrees to release and hold Dave & Buster's harmless from any and all claims arising from the preparation and consumption of leftover food items. Please note that buffets are portioned per person and quantities are placed out based on the contracted number of guests. Buffet portions are finite and not replenishable. Additional charges will apply if more food is requested by the event Host, and extra servings are subject to availability. As a responsible server in accordance with state and local beverage regulations, we reserve the right to monitor and limit consumption of beverage alcohol. 18% gratuity will be added to all food and beverage charges. Pricing is subject to change