Because everyone loves bacon

Here are my two attempts to cook bacon this morning:

1.) Microwave
Put two strips on a paper towel on a plate. Cover with another paper towel. Microwave for two minutes.

GOOD: Done in two minutes, very little clean-up, tender and chewy fatty parts.
BAD: Meat parts are very tough, little to no flavor left in the bacon.

2.) Oven
Line bacon on foil, place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 min at 400F.

GOOD: Lots and lots of flavor, grease is left over for use later
BAD: Fatty parts crumbles when you chew, too crispy to the point of being brittle, slightly burnt, takes fifteen minutes to cook.

VERDICT: The strong flavor of the oven cooking definitely trumps any bad marks, but I think fifteen minutes overcooked it. I’ll probably shoot for ten next time. Now I have this yummy grease left over to give something a smoky bacon flavor…

Before Obama…

…there was Rufus Jones. Here’s part 3, where we get to see his presidential moves in action.

Makes me happy

This just arrived in the mail today. If you haven’t yet checked out Abominable Charles Christopher, please do so.

Get out the vote

The Yip-Yips are up for Instructables DIY Halloween Contest! Scroll down to the bottom to see all the entries, or go directly to my instructable. Someone even said they won $1000 with the costume at Halloween contest!

You’ll need to create a login to vote, but Instructables is such a cool site anyways, it’s definitely worth your time if you’re into any sort of do-it-yourself projects.

Enough is too much!

Happy November!

Columbus Day

This is one of those strange half-holidays. It’s still an official US holiday, but it’s quite the crap shoot on whether you’ll have to go into work today. Plus, many different areas celebrate it differently, Berkeley being one example, calling today “Indigenous People’s Day”. Either way, this would be a good time to mention Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, a novel by Orson Scott Card.

Fans would most likely know of Card’s work through his very popular Ender’s series. Pastwatch is a stand-alone novel that while staying within the realm of science fiction, is a completely different beast all together. On the surface, it’s an intricate story of alternate history revisionism, on more levels than is even implied at the start of the novel. Card paints a portrait that centers entirely around the events of Columbus’ life, an inflection point in the history of our planet.

Card explores the possibilities of what-if, surrounding the events of 1492. What if Columbus never returned from his expedition? Would there still have followed a wave of explorers seeking land and riches? What if Spain decided to finance the Crusades to the East rather than indulge in the dream of an explorer looking west? And what if we had the ability not only to observe these events, but affect them directly? Is it worth obliterating the existence of our own timeline, and all in it that we love, to make way for something we believe to be better? Perhaps “worth” is not even the correct question, but do we even have the right to change history?

Still, beneath the complex causalities of time travel and temporal what-ifs, we become increasingly intimate with the character of Columbus, albeit Card’s depiction of him. Ultimately, we find he’s a man not driven by riches, fame, or discovery, but by faith, and that seems to be the hinge of the story. Pastwatch is in many ways, a missional novel. While there is no indication of God himself in this story, faith is the engine by which the events of history play out. In fact, this novel not only makes the case for the redemption of Columbus, but of the Christian faith itself and the many missteps it has taken in its two thousand year history. What if the first explorers presented the Gospel to the New World hand-in-hand with not the violence or greed they have historically been known for, but with the same sacrificial love that Christ brought it to us? The answer is undoubtedly still relevant today.

If I Didn’t Care

Just bought The Ink Spots Collection from iTunes…

I’m a PC

I switched over, and now I’m switching back. Last weekend I decided I’m selling my Macbook of six months and getting a Dell M1330. I just couldn’t get the hang of it, and I really tried. Despite assurances from many others that the grass was greener on this side of the fence, I just didn’t feel it. There are alot of things to like about the Macbook and OS X, but in the end it seemed like there was no need to be slogging through Leopard when Windows worked just fine. And by some funny timing, this week Microsoft unleashed its new marketing campaign to counter Apple’s “Get a Mac” series. Well, it’s about time I guess.

I’ll be sorry

I don’t regret many things in life. It’s better to learn from your mistakes, since wishing you never made them isn’t going to get you anywhere. But there is one thing I really regret. During my first year in college I was walking back to the dorms from my audition with the school symphony. I had my violin case with me, and I was seriously wondering if I really wanted to join the symphony at all. I think I determined going into the audition that regardless of what would happen, I wasn’t going to commit to the symphony. Something about wanting to focus on classes. Of course, that’s not the regret.

On my way through campus, I was approached by a three guys who saw me with my violin case. They asked me if I played violin, and after replying ‘yes’, they wanted to know if I was interested in joining their mariachi band. I think I was a bit scared at the prospect of trying something new, or maybe I felt that I’d somehow be cheating on my classical music training by joining them. Whatever the reason, I said “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Damn it!

I’m keeping the lion

I ordered these prints from Nedroid last week, and just got them framed yesterday. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, and it’s nice to be able to support someone I’m a fan of. Now to find these some good homes.