The chicken is marinated in olive oil and sun dried tomatoes and was served over a bed of sauteed garlic, onion, and apples with crisp lemon asparagus in the background. I’m still perfecting the grill technique on the asparagus – a little bit of charred blackness is fantastic, but it’s really easy to do.

The biggest experiment for me was the garlic, onion, and apples. I reduced a little lemon juice with the mix after caramelizing the onions to help bring out the sweetness in the onion. The end result came out sweet yet savory and filling. Next time I’m going to put the cloves of garlic in a few minutes early in the hopes of further softening it to better match the cooked apples.

Dessert was reheated from last night – a pureed pear and lime syrup baked over pear and apple slices with a crisp style top served ala mode with vanilla bean ice cream. This is certainly the tastiest thing I’ve ever made and possibly one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. NOM!

I now see why people cringe at the thought of crowns – putting a ceramic cap on a live nerve certainly makes for a tender mouth. My dentist said it was actually due to a galvanic response which between my naturally saline saliva and the metals used in crown construction can create a weak battery and thus current to stimulate the nerve ending with. Luckily this should fade within a day or two and I’ll be left with yet another ready-for-anything ceramic chomper with which to chew for the rest of my biological days.

Also: squeeeeeeeeeeeee! Berlin in 12 hours!!!one!

I guess not everyone has to be into zoos. Personally I don’t much find animals interesting. Sure I love Skype and having him around is a blast, but I enjoy his companionship rather than a fascination with his non-humanness. From a photographic perspective zoos don’t really do it for me because of the cages and glass – I far prefer getting up close and personal with my subjects, really interacting with them to get the perfect shot.

Oh well, I had fun, learned something about myself as an adult, and avoided heatstroke for another day. All in all a positive way to spend a Saturday afternoon even if I won’t repeat the experience.

Inspired by this man and his bacon-filled Whopper I decided to try a burger with wonderfully excessive bacon myself. Having seen that even a man of such awesomeness that he could think of such a thing not be able to finish it I decided to back off on the bacon for a first time experience and go for what was described to the puzzled cashier as "as much bacon as beef please".

Clearly, I got what I asked for.

Unlike my bacon hero I was able to completely conquer my tasty bacon sandwich. This is a feat that was a complete dismay for my arteries and assault on my tract. In the best interests of my long life I regretfully doubt it is an experience I will allow myself to repeat.

Check out the bacon set on flickr for additional bacon goodness!

I spoke with the vet and she confirmed that this was a good sign but urged me to continue to keep him very calm and on the anti-inflammatory drugs for the remainder of the course to prevent re-injury. As much as he’s bored to tears and getting frustrated I’m just glad it’s something he will be over soon as opposed to a life time of pain and aggravation.

The good news is that if the vet is correct he will be much better in a week or so. The bad news is that this kind of injury can be a very early sign of canine arthritis – certainly something I hope is not true. I don’t need to see poor Skype endure pain like my grandmother did through much of her life.

As strange as this sounds it does make sense – insurance and health care is expensive these days, and the lower salary ranges tend to have more physically oriented jobs. Not having the money required to fix the root cause of a particular pain leaves the sufferer with two choices: dull the pain with inexpensive drugs (read: over the counter drugs), or suffer onward enduring the pain. Neither option really strikes me as an ideal long term solution, but until a national health care plan with reasonable reach and plausible economics exists do we have another option?

Admittedly due to the rain the parades attendance was down from what the organizers would have hoped for, but worse was the cross section of society that showed up. A good half of the attendees had the stereotypical stoner look – not what you want showing up on the evening news though. When people see the B roll footage that is likely to make the media what will they see? Certainly not sickly looking patients desperately needing marijuana to survive. Certainly not professional and trustworthy looking people – just stoners through and through. It presents the public with a rough image composed of stoned hippies drenched in patchouli eating chips rather than doctors and businessmen giving credibility and weight in the public eye.

What the marijuana legalization campaign really needs is a true spokesperson. Someone professional and educated with a sharp tongue and an even sharper suit. A spokesperson to show up on TV and talk to the American public – not show up at a hemp rally and talk to stoners. The kind of people who attend rallies marches, and events are already swayed – the movement needs to broaden its focus and broaden it’s message to the other 99% of the public.

As Abraham Lincoln once said “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” To enact the same kind of broad social change that Lincoln once did the movement needs to sway public sentiment, not stoner sentiment.

Update: My friend Shae just pointed me at this article. It would seem Rick Steves has stepped up to the plate to hopefully be just the spokesperson I’m looking for here. Go Rick!

Aside from spending my day prepping the 101 in 1001 list and designing the page for it I’ve been resting – I was sick the last couple of days and it’s really nice not to be knocked on my ass any more.

Side thought – the older I get the more sick I get when I become ill. Trend, inevitability, or side effect of a desk-job lifestyle?

And then I snap out of it and realize I’m getting a haircut. Have I been single too long that this is the closest I’ve come to a truly intimate moment in as long as I can remember? I’m not sure if that’s progressively transhumanist, or just plain sad. In this day and age biology still holds sway over technology.

Having spent Sunday and Monday mostly in bed with an endless shuffle of Mythbusters keeping me semi-conscious and stuffed with explosions and witticisms from Adam I’m ready to get back to it. I have a ton of stuff to catch up on at work, and a all but full time career search to boot – busy week ahead, I can tell already.

Having caught up my stress levels are slowly returning to a more manageable level. This is a good thing as my health tends to suffer when I get too stressed out and in a case like this getting sick would only increase how far behind was. I’m starting to get more energy back and feeling more social as a result. Traskpro development may slow down slightly in the coming weeks if I end up being out of the house more when not at work.

I even found the time to take a few photos in the last few days. The above shot of Mike being Mike was taken from joining him, Cyn, and Charlotte at Cal Anderson park for some impromptu picnic play this morning. I’m also a fan of this new addition to my sticker series, and to this shot from the Pink Parasol – a cute little boutique a couple of blocks from my house.

Enjoy, just don’t enjoy too much – we all know what happens when OMFGTOOMUCHCOFFEE is consumed.

This start contrast (combined with the weary weight of too many hours put into work and Traskpro) is leaving me depleted – worried about the future I strive so hard to bring about. My vision of the future seems at times so within my grasp – mere years away if everything goes right. Then I realize that nothing is going right: the world is a glacially slowly moving monstrosity. While technology continues to evolve in leaps and bounds it’s the rest of the world that’s too slow to adapt to it and seemingly unwilling embrace its change.

So what is the point? If the world won’t embrace the change technology offers is it worth the effort to produce the technology? Should radical technologists like myself simply give up? Should we all go back to farming goats and continue our tried and true biological ways?

Yes I’m OK. Yes I was a little numb for a while. And surprisingly I’m actually more pro-Taser than I was before this whole thing started. It’s effective at dropping you for sure, but really doesn’t leave lasting harm, and assuming you don’t have any weird medical problems it’s surprisingly safe from what I’ve read.

Oh yeah – and you can get the file here if you really want it. A longer version with far more details including what lead up to this will be posted to Gear Live in the next couple of days.

Update: The Gear Live video (which is over 7 minutes long and has a lot more lead up, comedy, and wonderfulness) has gone live. check it out, or better yet give it a digg.

Had a great dinner with Chris from Bloghaus and partied a bit with some of the Monster Cable guys – but now the time to sleep has come. I’ll post more of my adventures shortly in the hear future – I promise! If you simply can’t wait you can always check out my Twitter feed for the minute by minute, blow by blow of my CES experience.

Ahh, a lazy day of Traskpro coding, Photoshop sandbox play, and watching movies with Skype – does it get any better?

Taking it easy I said? Not likely with being the only PM in over the holidays and some massive amounts of work to do! Hopefully I can make today short and get home to rest and recuperate.

Not to force Skype to be the only raw foodist in the house I’ve been doing my part and eating a fair amount of sushi of late. I did Wasabi Bistro on Saturday for Scott’s birthday party (Happy Birthday Scott!), and Hana tonight with Ken. Some would call Sushi twice in 3 days excessive – I call it just right.

To keep me company on the couch I had a few new video games. Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, and Super Mario Galaxy have all come out in the last couple of weeks and are quite excellent games. It’s nice to see that video games are really coming into their own and becoming a viable mainstream form of alternative entertainment to plain old television.

Of those three games Mass Effect is by far my favorite so far. It’s Biowares latest saga and feels very much like KOTOR – one of my all time favorite games. It’s highly immersing and addictive and far too easy to spend 4 straight days playing. I’ve written up a proper review of the game which should post to Gear Live shortly.

Time to get back to the salt mines. Take care o’ readers of mine.

Update: The Mass Effect review on Gear Live just posted – check it out!

I’m willing to bet another factor in my bright-eyed outlook on the day comes from a relaxing (and productive) weekend. My dad passed through town and I got to hang out with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while. This combined with a good deal of time spent on my couch with Puzzlequest and iTunes content left me feeling relaxed, energized, and ready to tackle my week at work.