RIP

Ed Simmons, also known as Millikan Man and/or the inventor of the strain gauge, has died at age 93. We should all live such long and colorful lives.

yami · 16:58 · 25 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Links

Someone’s An Excuse

This is by way of an "I oughta post" post, because I was in the mountains most of last week and will be in Iowa most of this week, and I spent most of this evening mulching and planting (the other surviving watermelon seedling, an eggplant, and some thyme, and I hope I can curb my herbaceous compulsions for a while) so I'm not feeling particularly funny or thoughtful. So! On with the peanut gallery.
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yami · 22:30 · 24 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Fan Mail

Sorbets I’m Dreaming Of

Am eating the aforementioned rhubarb sorbet over a pile of lightly crushed nilla wafers - delightful! The rhubarb isn't actually from my yard, but it could be, in theory, if I were eating my plants rather than nursemaiding them through a summer heat they're not at all built to handle. Sorbet is remarkably simple, once you've gotten past the whole "having an ice cream maker" issue, and it's cold, and it's tasty. So now it's time to play the "make a sorbet out of everything in my garden" game:

yami · 19:16 · 18 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Food

Hvid Chokolade delice “kronprinsparret”

For dessert, the Danish Kronprins Fred and his new wife are eating white chocolate mousse with rhubarb sorbet, yum! I confess that the mousse sounds like too much fuss for me but one can probably substitute instant pudding. Certainly a crust of "digestive biscuits" wouldn't strain anything, though there's always danger of getting mired in the cracker-cookie aisle when deciding between graham crackers and nilla wafers, and coming out with nothing but Triskets and a cube of gjetost.

yami · 16:27 · 14 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Food

Life of the Mind

Over at Frogs and Ravens and Liliputian Lilith, people are fighting to reclaim the word "intellectual", or perhaps some other word, for non-professional/quasi-professional participants in traditional academic endeavors. I think it's a mistake not to situate that discussion within a broader cultural habit of devaluing upaid work. I also think there's a funny elitist tinge to the whole concept - some of the things brought up as possible contributions of a non-professional intellectual class are more properly thought of as civic duties. It's quite an involved discussion to plunge into after three days in the field, so I hope all y'all can bear with me as I try to catch up.
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yami · 21:02 · 13 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Uncategorized, Ineffable

Mud-Thirsty Bees

When in the office (which I'm still not, hoorah! but they might make me return tomorrow) I go for walks round the parking lot and see bees. Not lots of bees, but some bees, some staggering around on the asphalt in confused wandering circles, some twitching, some dead. It's obvious what's wrong with the second two types, but the first type has been a mystery. Those bees are obviously stuck in a bee rut, cut off on a neglected whorl of the bee decision flow chart with their little bee heads full of sadness and incorrect dance steps.

Today there were a bunch of bees clustered around the mud I was creating for work. They were doing the same kind of bee circles as the bees on the parking lot, but weren't stuck at all; they were drinking! Are we confusing the bees with our modern-style pavements? The mud was dark with light gravel flecks, similar to some asphalt. It seems dumb that bees would ignore, say, temperature cues, which would tend to mark asphalt off as a not-at-all thirst-quenching location; but it's only a few bees that are confused by this anyway.

Also, which came first, the widespread use of bees as a wholesome pun element, or the innocent goofiness of the word "bee"? Double letters are so sillee!

yami · 17:21 · 11 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Whimsy

Aaah Generation Overload

Only X-treme Corporate Loyalty would drive me to sit in an internet cafe in a ski resort town while small (and adorably nerdy) adolescents tell me how to use computers. I had three-cycle semilog graph paper, but three cycles is not enough! Six cycles constructed of two sheets is not enough! Only four-cycle semilog graph paper printed out from the Internet will do, and I will be mentioning the loudmouthed questions of the "hey how do I do this and that in my game that has obnoxious sound effects?" kid at review time. That kid has been in the Medieval Barbituate. He almost won, too.

I am the oldest person in the room, which is not at all a refreshing change from hearing stories of how you could once upon a time buy land in these mountains for $150 and boy haven't families sure fallen apart these days? But since I just spent most of the day reading under pine trees, getting up every half hour for a two-minute measurement, I really can't complain.

But I can feel old and square. Very square.

yami · 18:12 · 10 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Diary

Rhubarb-Banana Bread?

The ever-beguiling Chocolate and Zucchini has a recipe for cranberry banana bread; sounds like an excellent way to use a few more of those big $1 bags of almost-bad bananas that haunt the "reduced for quick sale" produce cart. It also sounds like an excellent reason to think about solar ovens, because gas ones and 100 degree afternoons just don't mix. Everything makes me think about solar ovens these days; when the wind blows from the Pacific again I'll get over it.

Anyway, cranberries. They're wonderful, but they're also out of season, and I wasn't clever enough to fill my freezer with the post-Thanksgiving sales. But I think rhubarb is really the cranberry of spring - sweet-tart without the puckering acidity of citrus, and shockingly tasty over roast meat. The next question is, will rhubarb sauce be as good a moistening agent as applesauce, or do I still have to put in the usual amount of margarine?

yami · 19:33 · 4 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Food

Garden Post

Well! I thought my car would make it to work, but it started crying and overheating three miles out on the freeway... limped in to the mechanic, who replaced all the hoses that needed replacing (i.e. every single heater hose in the car as they were all close to crumbling; it was time for a full coolant flush anyway) and I was granted the day off work to deal with it, wahoo! It's like a snow day, but with oppositely inclement weather and a $200 price tag.

At any rate - I don't have anything resembling experimental controls in my garden, but that won't stop me from wonking out on horticulture. Also ruminations on tomato variety names and hipster gardening if you're into that sort of thing.
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yami · 0:00 · 4 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Diary

Nerds Save 5%

The coolant pixies live in a very short hose that runs from one thingy to another thingy underneath the thing. I deduced this myself, after running the very simple experiment of filling up the radiator and watching coolant drip onto the ground. It's a slow enough leak to get me to work tomorrow, I think, and to Pep Boys at lunch - but I joined AAA just in case.

They offer nerd discounts on auto insurance! I feel so special; we'll see if it actually saves me money. Meanwhile, my hands smell like antifreeze, sweet and oddly compelling yet still utterly poisonous. And I'm wondering: just what kind of shitty-ass hack mechanic would fail to find this leak? Sure, a few miles of driving may have blown it open some, but still it's right there.

yami · 20:52 · 2 May 2020 · #
Filed under: Diary