Cocktail Confessions

I can’t take credit for the article and I’m not going to copy and paste the whole thing here, but if you jump over to one of those convoluted links over at MSNBC.com, I came across an interesting story about a guy who gave up meat for 30 days in protest to meat industry and factory farms.

Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal?  Well, it is if you’re actually Craig “Meathead” Goldwyn, author of the famous BBQ blog and recipe site, amazingribs.com.

He did mention some side effects:  1) He lost five pounds, 2) And experienced some intestinal distress towards the end.  Not sure if that is because he obviously increased his overall fiber intake, his body was adjusting to a new diet, or something else entirely.

The closest I ever gave up anything for that long was alcohol once many years ago.  A friend bet me I couldn’t last a month without a sip of booze.  I actually made it about 29 days, and then I was a party and I think I had a wine cooler or something just as horrid.  I suppose I could have gotten away with it if I really wanted to, but a bet is a bet, and I was honest, and I came clean.  She treated me anyway to a nice dinner of Pick Up Stix anyway for my efforts (we were young and broke at the time).

I was thinking about “Meathead’s” meatless month and I wondered if I could do the same.  I probably could, although it may be slightly harder than I may think it is.  I’m not really positive how much meat I eat a week.  I do have quite a few sandwiches during the week, BBQ a lot in the summer, and make other dinner time meals during that usually has a meat component.

I did wish I ate more fish though, so I ‘may’ be able to get persevere anyway.  I suppose if my doctor told me to give up red meat, I eventually could.  My doctor told me to cut back on my cholesterol at one point and I can honestly tell you I cut my buffalo wing consumption by 80% and my shrimp/lobster/crab consumption by 95%, (I still have the occasional shrimp, but not like I used too).  Cheese is the hardest I find.  I do eat more 2%, low-fat, and even some non-fat cheese on occasion, but I can’t stomach the ‘vegi’ or ‘soy’ cheese.  It’s horrid.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article and you can read it here.

Now here’s a college art project I can get behind and study for!! 

Just enlist one weed smoking artist with unkempt hair, one mechanical engineering major that needs to get out and breathe some fresh air, and a fraternity (or two, or three) to volunteer their resources, and voila…

BOXEL was created by some University of Applied Sciences students in Detmold (Germany) over one week, tasked with the challenge of creating a summer pavilion in 1:1 scale. Apparently, the beer boxes are not merely stocked on top of one another, but “freely organized,” with slats, screws and bracings holding it all together.

Now hopefully the tear down wil be just as fun.  Maybe some extreme sports enthusiasts who like demolition stunts?

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured the highest-resolution temperature map to date of Saturn’s moon Mimas, and it found Pac-Man.

Mimas, one of Saturn’s many, many moons, is notable for several reasons. According to Wikipedia, it’s the “smallest known astronomical body that is thought to be rounded in shape due to self-gravitation.” For a sci-fi nerd, Mimas is notable because its singular prominent crater immediately brings to mind the Death Star – that’s no space station, that’s a moon! Now, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has taken temperature-map photos of Mimas that give it another claim to fame: It’s secretly Pac-Man.

Specifically, it’s Pac-Man eating a dot, as seen here to the right. I mean, that’s unmistakably the classic videogame icon right there. I wonder if they’ll find Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde on any of the other moons while they’re at it?

NASA itself hadn’t been expecting to find the Pac-Man in the Moon, either:

Scientists working with the composite infrared spectrometer, which mapped Mimas’ temperatures, expected smoothly varying temperatures peaking in the early afternoon near the equator. Instead, the warmest region was in the morning, along one edge of the moon’s disk, making a sharply defined Pac-Man shape, with temperatures around 92 Kelvin (minus 294 degrees Fahrenheit). The rest of the moon was much colder, around 77 Kelvin (minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit). A smaller warm spot — the dot in Pac-Man’s mouth — showed up around Herschel, with a temperature around 84 Kelvin (minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit).

As it turns out, Pac-Man is defined by temperatures at a balmy -294 F. No wonder he eats so much – gotta stay warm somehow!

Credit to Escapist.com via G4

Just a small update here to let you know what’s been going on the last week for me here.

I just got back from a business trip out in Atlanta, GA where it rained, nay, poured every single day while I was out there.  I was able to take my portable Zoom digital recorder and make some day to day entries in which I plan to assemble and edit sometime this week for podcast episode #16.

Anyway, in bullet form, here are a couple of upcoming things to look forward to:

• Assemble and post podcast #16, my trip to Atlanta.
• Turning 40 this month (tomorrow actually), and what it means to me.
• Looking for a good grilled fish taco recipe that we can post here.  Meaning I’m looking for a nice California or Mexican, or Baja styled grilled fish taco recipe.  Can be swordfish, cod, halibut, mahi mahi.  Also variations on the ‘white sauce’ recipes too.
• Recently went to HUSH in Laguna Beach, and need to both review restaraunt/bar and food.
• How I ended the evening in the gay bar, “Bounce”, much to my surprise and the Manhattan hangover the next day.
• Upcoming 40th birthday beer bash and BBQ.
• Oh, and a new tactic for dieting….I need to shed a few pounds.