Archive for May, 2006

I am Irish and it flows through my viens

so very true

Unusual Ice Cream flavors…

BoingBoing (worth hitting every once in a while) posted an article about some of the wild and wacky Japanese ice cream flavors that are fairly common and not all that wierd in the Japanese market. Things like Soy Sauce, or Squid, and others that will make some American’s tongues turn around and run down their throats. Not for the squeamish obviously.But I have always wondered why it is so difficult to get ice cream flavors here in the states that I would figure would be very common. For instance… banana ice cream. Just plain old banana ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s has the very awesome Chunky Monkey (which includes choco chunks and walnuts)… and you can get banana in some of the premium ice cream shops. But I want to know why fat ol’ Americans aren’t happy with any ice cream that doesn’t have tons of add-ins or just plain chocolate or just plain vanilla. Strawberry is about as “out there” as you can get. Drives me nuts. (ha ha) There has to be a market here, there has to be.
Some of the flavors/variations I would like to see in mainstream (ie commonly available non premium ice creams):

  • Banana (duh)
  • Coconut
  • Apple (yes it can be done… Dreyers has a limited edition Apple Pie every year)
  • Cinnamon (Plain ol’ cinnamon)
  • Mexican Chocolate (twist on the cinnamon)
  • Breakfast cereals mixers (Imagine your favorite childhood cereal mixed into vanilla ice cream!) Fruit LOOPS! Sugar Smacks! Cinnamon Toast Crunch! …Even Frosted Flakes (which btw is totally awesome on top of vanilla ice cream).
  • Almond (no nuts, just flavor)
  • Toasted Marshmallow
  • Cherry (not Sherbert)
  • Blueberry (Ditto)
  • Malt (Seriously – add malted milk to vanilla – goooooood)

I could keep going… i guess the only thing the plain flavors have going for it is the “blank canvas” factor. You can add anything you would like to it to make your own. And of course you could just buy a simple little machine and make it yourself. (Frozen custard is worth doing if you have your own machine – see Alton Brown’s Good Eats.) Personally, I would like to see quirky flavors in the grocery store. I for one would be brave enough to buy them.

So i was talking to Jess…

“So…. I am thinking about running for president.”

“President?”  Her eyes went slightly wide.  “Like president of the United States?”

“Eventually.”

“But you hate politics.”

“Yeah.”  I shrug.

“Don’t you have to be in politics to run for President?  Have money and all that?”

“Right now you do.  By the time I run, things will be different.”

“Different?”

“The world can change a lot in 20 years.  Is it so hard to think that my kind of crazy may be normal by then?”

“God help us, I hope not.”

ChocoVan Martinis

Yeah that’s right… mmmmmmm…. yummers.

Check out ChocoVan Martini on ExtraTasty!

Things to believe in… part 1

  1. There are few things in life that are actually worth remembering. The rest can all be looked up somewhere. Memorization is for those that seek to impress, pass tests, or just be foolish with the neurons they were blessed with. Better to learn how to multitask than to memorize. Remembering how to find info and be able to find it fast is far greater a skill than knowing which layer of the OSI model packets are created. Memorization is for certifications, multitasking is for the actual job that needs to be done.
  2. Any IT person can do any IT job. It all boils down to speed of adaptation. If a person can adapt patterns of learning and research to a new job, within the required period of time, that person can do that job. One does not require 4 years of router experience to be able to be a router admin. Sure that 4 years may speed adaptation, but since every environment is so different anyway (see next), it will take them the same amount of time to come up to speed as a driven competent individual.
  3. Every company has to do it different. Sure there are industry standards and best practices… but in the end, it (whatever ‘it’ is) involves humans. Humans intentionally or unintentionally exert personal bias into everything they do… leading to an organic growth of the sum of the biases of the team, the group, the company into an unique set of practices, procedures and culture. There is no escaping human nature and our need to make things our own. Every person has to do it different. A company that finds people that all seem to do it the same way is the company that “finds” competitive advantage.
  4. I may believe there is a god. You may not believe in a god or may believe in a different god, and you know what? That is ok. Niether of us have any right or reason to force our opinion on the other. Religion is a shield idiots and cowards hide behind when they seek to jusitfy their own weak human agenda.
  5. There are two things one should not discuss in mixed company. Religion (see previous) and Politics. Both are a waste of time in discussing… because at the end, you still believe what you want to believe and I still believe what I want to believe.
  6. Governments require resets. And I don’t care how advanced they are. Famine, Economic collapse, invading hordes… eventually every government is reset. The United States should be the first to reset voluntarily and not through negative circumstance.

Hello world!

Har de har har…

Took the plunge, hopped on the proverbial band wagon, submitted to peer pressure, what ever you want to call it… I have the site, the blog, and the readership of 1.

Moi.

Oh well. It ain’t easy being green.