What you need to know

1. I am tuned up at 5:51 pm on a Monday. I made a pitcher of margaritas and all our guests drank beer. So I had to drink the margaritas. Motherfuckers.

2. We are having true Maybuary weather, as we grilled out and had flurries (with blue skies) until the blue skies vanished and our little deckwarming firepit could not withstand the snow(ish). Bastages!

3. The company and the food were amazing, and much fun was had regardless of our Maybuary storm.

4. We are going to continue our grand Memorial Day tradition of watching shit blow up on our TV.

5. Strawberry-rhubarb pie from City Market = surprisingly good!

Quick and dirty NOLA

Denver’s Day of Rock was nice but this post is full of NOLA updates for my friend who is about to make a trip.

One of the best things I put in my mouth the entire time we were in New Orleans is the Shrimp and Grits from the Desire Oyster Bar. PHENOMENAL.

Beignets are a must; Cafe du Monde or Cafe Beignet, makes no difference.

Cochon is the other place you need to visit – not far from the convention center and while the food is upscale, the prices aren’t. One of the best drinks I had was there (the Swinekiller) and their drink menu was nearly as incredible as the food.

Before you leave, hit up the Central Grocery for an original muffaletta. Plan on splitting it because they’re massive.

Crescent City Brewhouse has two floors and an excellent courtyard. The beer’s a little pricey but you’ll be glad you ordered a Red and Black half and half. SO GOOD. I ordered the duck and it was EXCELLENT.

Visit a Hemingway haunt at the Carousel bar inside the Hotel Monteleone. The Ramos Gin fizz is fantastic.

For music and drinks, we spent a lot of time at Maison on Frenchmen Street. Their fruit punch was on special and FANTASTIC, as were the bands. Make sure to catch dinner at the Praline Connection just up the street; it was one of our favorites.

Bourbon House has great food and impeccable service.

You’ll need strong drinks to tackle Bourbon Street and luckily they are available everywhere. I like loud music but Rue Bourbon is MOTHERFCKINGLOUD.

If you need a lunch break during your conference, hit up Mulate’s just across the street. Best sweet tea in town (among other things).

Take the St. Charles streetcar out to Tulane and see what a real university looks like.

The Haunted History tour was interesting. The Voodoo Museum is wicked cheap and takes all of about 10 minutes to get through.

It takes a bit of legwork to get to, but the Metairie Cemetery is worth a visit. Make sure you take something to drink.

The Brave New World of privacy

This week on The 404, the guys talked about Google’s new Wallet. Aside from the cool idea of being able to swipe your phone to pay for whatever you’re buying, Wilson brought up privacy concerns. Jeff’s response was “What do you have to hide?” and for me that rings some bells.

Also in the news this week, President Obama signed the Patriot Act extension. How specifically are these two news events related? Let’s see:

I make some inflammatory statements about how much I detest peas*, I think peas should be eradicated and people who like peas are fascist. Let’s say the government is a huge proponent of peas, probably because their congressional/presidential campaigns have been supported by the pea industry and pro-pea lobby groups. Worse, let’s say our leaders are less than bright**. They decide that peas are integral to the US economy and any anti-pea activist is a “terrorist.”

Thanks to Bush Deuce, any government can slap the “terrorist” label on any group and – because they’re a government – it’s suddenly an accepted fact. Let’s do a test: when was the last time you heard about a “terrorist” group on the news and actually did any research into what they do/did/planned? The label can be arbitrarily assigned.

The Patriot Act means the government doesn’t have to prove you’re a “terrorist” to start spying on you. Maybe an agent with a serious hard-on for the anti-pea movement decides to SUSPECT you of “terrorism” and then begins collecting information about you to prove it. Lets say you purchase ingredients (which are readily available over the counter) that could be used to create an explosive device***. These items were purchased for their INTENDED purpose, but thanks to the Patriot Act and the increased availability of all your information in one place, the government sites the Patriot Act and takes your purchase history from Google. You may have purchased all of these items over the course of a year (or two) but the Patriot Act does not require that a warrant is obtained. For all you know, the government is monitoring your purchases right now.

But what do you have to hide? Nothing, I guess, as long as the government doesn’t mind you hating peas. Just make sure you don’t hate anything that the government LIKES.

If you think only the people with something to hide have to be concerned, you’re deluding yourself. Any of your interests or hobbies can classify you into a group, and a group can be labeled pretty easily. Think about something you really like and what would happen if the government decided it was bad. Not because it IS bad, but because it wants people to THINK it’s bad.

*I became uncomfortable talking about my pro-choice positions in public places, like airports, when Bush 2 was in charge because – given his vehement pro-life stance – I wasn’t convinced that that kind of shit wouldn’t get me a full body-cavity search. Paranoid? Maybe. Possible? Yes.

**Because THAT NEVER HAPPENS. Raise your hand if you believe everyone currently in the House and Senate actually understand the implications of technology and privacy and how they could be used to hurt citizens rather than help the government.

***I resisted the urge to Google search for said ingredients because I don’t need a visit from any federal agency, thank you.

Netbook, ahoy!

I picked up a netbook for several reasons:

1. My laptop has eaten another battery. I figured if I was going to replace a second one, I might as well get a new device instead.

2. Clearance price. I got this little sucker for less than $200 (after tax), which was the only thing that made it plausible.

3. I’d been thinking it would be nice to have something I could take with me to work, so that I can write during my lunchbreak. The netbook is small enough that it fits in the tiny work lockers.

4. Last but not least, surprise money.

And here she is:

I’m calling her Shortcake since she’s tiny and cute and peppy. These things have very little logic. It’s an Acer D255E-13639 (which you can see in the photo) and I’ve already changed the wallpaper.

The stupidest thing about Windows 7 starter is that you can’t change the desktop wallpaper or themes. Me? I don’t give a hot damn about themes but there was no chance that I was keeping that standard background. I suspect this was the plan of the evil TechNOverlords to annoy the average joe into an $80 upgrade [jerks]. Doing a very quick google search (have I mentioned how much I’m liking the latest Chrome?) I found Oceanis to change the background. I’m not linking the site because it tried to install malware but my AVG Free/ZoneAlarm free caught it. Anyhoo, thanks to hackers everywhere I’ve got a set of nifty background images that I can rotate through as frequently as I’d like.

As to the REST of Windows 7 Starter… I’m not noticing much of a difference from Home Premium (which I have on my laptop) probably because I didn’t get Shortcake to DO those things. This is not the machine you’re looking to stream movies from Netflix and get great picture/sound because it’s got a 10.1″ screen, for crying out loud. I’ve installed a couple of writing programs to play around with, the keyboard is comfortably sized and I haven’t had any issues getting the machine to do what I want. The hard drive is the same size on this as it is on my laptop (250G) and I’ve already used dropbox to add music to Shortcake.

In peripheral news, they have come a LONG WAY in wireless mouse technology. I love that this has a multitouch pad but I grabbed a wireless ($19 at Target) because sometimes it’s nice to have one. The usb interface is very nearly flush with the edge of the netbook, making it the tiniest usb input I’ve ever seen. Go you, Logitech!

I haven’t had any luck locally finding a sleeve that isn’t too big, but Office Max does stock a couple of TINY backpacks perfect for this.

This is probably where I should also do an endorsement of the free AVG and ZoneAlarm products, as in all of the years I’ve had PCs I’ve never gotten a single virus or trojan. Go free software! It also helps to download from cnet, as they make sure your programs come malware free.

A new skin from DecalGirl is already wending its way to the mountains. You can use DECAL10 and get 10% off right now, or like their facebook page and get a one-time only code. I’ve used their service for virtually all my devices in the last 4/5 years and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about them.

So yeah. Spouse has been at a work thing and I’ve been nerding out with my new toy ever since I got home this afternoon. There’s a solid chance I may even install Linux on this one. I haven’t touched my phone or looked at the television but I guess he’ll be relieved not to hear me TALK ABOUT ALL THIS since I’m just putting it on the internet.

THAT was unexpected

Today at work was shittier than usual, mostly due to a large number of incompetent people whose shortcomings all bumped up against each other TODAY and caused ME to do more work. When I came home I checked the mail, as per usual, and found a couple of envelopes. One was complete junk and the other was a check from a class action suit that I was opted into.

WHAT?!

I know, right? When you get those pieces of mail you always think they’re bullshit but apparently the system occasionally works. It’s not a huge payday but there is a very sweet, incredibly inexpensive little netbook in my future thanks to the check and the clearance shelves at Target. w00t!

Thanks to the boys at the 404 podcast, I’m re-evaluating my mistrust of Chrome. The latest release didn’t wow me as it didn’t have a lot of the extensions I’ve grown to love in Firefox but the speed is gradually winning me over. In addition, they HAVE added some more extensions that increase the functionality for me. If only I could get the GD import and sync features to work…

In unrelated news, I thought the Glee finale was maybe the worst episode of the season. Am I the only one?

FML

I slept okay from 10ish to midnight and then tossed and turned from midnight to 3:17 am at which point I decided FUCKIT, I’LL GET UP. This mostly means that I’m dressed, ready for work and thinking about changing the theme on my blog. Because that’s how I do.

Rapture party

Yesterday I sent out a text to a group of friends for an impromptu Rapture party at one of our favorite local haunts. Much beer was drunk and much fun was had. The attendees – Spouse and I, a museum director, a communications teacher, a mathematics PhD candidate and an IBM software engineer. One of the best things to come out of the party “Maybuary” – as in, “This is some fantastic Maybuary weather we’re rocking.” You might have to live in Colorado to understand how great it is.

Also, recapping the highlights of our Holy Land Experience experience was quite popular.

Podcasts, books and my DroidX

When I got my new DroidX, I began soliciting podcast suggestions from my friends. There were a couple of reasons for this: 1. Drive time. I’ve got a good chunk of it. 2. Faster processor. I loved my Eris but it didn’t manage podcasts well. I had previously had podcasts on my Zune, but who really needs a podcast when you’ve got 90 gigs of music, right?

I upgraded the memory card on the DroidX (from the 2 gig it came with to the 8 gig from my Eris, now to a 16 gig class 6) and combined with the 8 gig internal memory, it means way more room for media. Here’s what I’m listening to:

The Bugle. God DAMN is this podcast funny. Sadly, I’ve had a bitch of a time getting it to sync with WinAmp AND DoggCatcher, so I’ve resorted to putting it in my GReader rss feed subscriptions. If you like The Daily Show, you will like this podcast.

this WEEK in TECH. Kind of the standard nerdcast about tech stuff. Interesting, though not necessarily humorous.

Buzz Out Loud. First of two cnet podcasts, this is longer and has a chick on it. I kind of think of this as Attack of the Show, but audio. Frequently good for chuckles.

This American Life. As with the NPR radiocast, it’s hit or miss for me but worth having.

Doug Loves Movies. Dude, this thing makes me laugh out loud in the breakroom so that people give me the crazy eye. If you want to start somewhere, grab the Adam Carolla, Jerry O’Connell and “Bald” Bryan Bishop ep.

The Nerdist. This is an odd tech-but-not-tech, comedy-but-not-comedy podcast. Not a variety show but it tends to have interviews that lurch wildly from topic to topic. Consistently entertaining.

The 404. Oh my god. This is the second cnet podcast, about 30 minutes long and featuring 3 dudes pretty close to my age group because I get ALL their pop culture references. This show slays me, every day. See show 820 for an awesomely hilarious, dystopian version of The Game of Life. I snickered about that ALL DAY.

The Moth. I just added this and I dig it. It’s like short form fiction standup.

Stuff You Missed in History Class. I think the title is self-explanatory and I’m a history nerd.

You’d think there would be a lot of overlap in my tech podcasts but it’s broken up by the different viewpoints. Where Buzz Out Loud was all worked up about the Android unsecured wifi exploit, the 404 guys were like “Uh, isn’t it ALWAYS a bad idea to get on unsecured wifi?” If I could only recommend two, I’d tell you to get The 404 and The Bugle. Number three is Doug Loves Movies.

On to books. According to GoodReads I’m three books ahead of my ’55 books this year’ schedule. Let me clarify, that means 55 books worth telling people about. I read various amounts of crap and sundry that I don’t count against my ‘real’ books goal because I’m not going to talk about them even if you ask me, because they’re crap and sundry. Not even braincandy. So yeah, I’m looking for 55 books I’ll admit to having spent time with and/or provoke enough thought that I want/need/am interested to discuss.

Yesterday I finished Mockingjay, the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I know you’ve heard a lot of hype about these books because JESUSwhohasn’t? That said, the hype is well-deserved. I can’t think of a better executed, more ambitious, sweeping, engrossing and engaging series in recent years (and I’m including other series books I LOVE like Chelsea Cain’s Heart series). It’s brutal and honest and awesome and inspiring and discouraging and real. Not only that, each individual book is fucking great. As a series, you’ll finish Mockingjay and then immediately want to start the series over so you can remember what it was like before you lost your innocence. What I’m saying is that if you haven’t read these books, you need to read these books – immediately, if not sooner. Here’s where I give a plug to booklending.com which is where I borrowed Mockingjay and raced through it in about 4 hours. Gripping, y0.

In related news, if you’ve got book and/or podcast suggestions SHARE THEM! I can use all the audio distraction I can GET at work…

Dear Rand Paul

Slavery. This does not mean what you think it means.

1. No one, including the government, is FORCING people to become doctors against their will.

2. Not only do you have to CHOOSE 8 additional years of schooling, you have to SUCCEED at it.

3. You get paid. In fact, you get paid better than 90% of the population.

4. Government healthcare would, in fact, GUARANTEE you get paid because it eliminates welshers who don’t have insurance and an inability to pay. Government healthcare ENSURES that you get money for your services.

Let’s review: Not only is this NOT slavery, it’s NOT indentured servitude.

I don’t put a lot of politics in the blog but this isn’t about politics – it’s disingenuous and flat out wrong. In terms of political discourse, this is especially disappointing as you sound increasingly like the Captain of the Wingnut Brigade. When it comes to “libertarianism” there are a lot of good arguments for smaller government – LOTS of them, arguments that even sound REASONABLE if you don’t resort to lazy hyperbole.

Also, I’m going to call bullshit on THIS particular argument because – as a physician – you know full fucking well that the private sector is epically and irreparably broken when it comes to providing healthcare for Americans. If you’re going to pretend that things are fine, you should do a better job of it. You’ve got a staff, fucking use them.

In closing, what the fuck?

NOLA

The first thing people ask about when I mention NOLA are beignets. Weird, right?

These were at Café Beignet. While we did visit Café du Monde a couple of times, I actually preferred the beignets here. They were a bit lighter and fluffier but don’t get me wrong – beignets in any incarnation are delicious. This was the spot on Bourbon Street which wasn’t actually on Bourbon – a little courtyard just off the sidewalk, with the tables and counters deep in the lot. The live music which was always playing distracts from the strip clubs and pounding dance beats that make up the majority of this part of Rue Bourbon, such that it’s kind of a shock to get back to the sidewalk and the noise after your interlude and treats.

Our first two days though, were all about French Quarter Fest. I wish I had a single picture that captured what it was like, but this is the best of the bunch.

We arrived to hotter than usual weather, which was LOVELY. I, who hate extreme heat and humidity, was thrilled by the change in latitude. I believe my exact words were, “It’s as hot and moist outside as it is on my insides!” This was said with an inordinate amount of joy. We walked from the CBD to Bourbon a couple of times the first day, checking out the Fest and Rue Bourbon. While it’s no Red Light District, I’ll say Bourbon Street lives up to its hype.

The French Quarter Fest comprised of some major stages right on the Mississippi which – if you haven’t seen it from NOLA – looks like a completely different body of water when compared to the crossing at St. Louis, as well as a bunch of smaller stages throughout the quarter. In addition, there were a boatload of buskers and bands playing virtually anywhere they found free sidewalk or streetspace. The end result was the loveliest, largest street party you’ve ever seen and the best food I’ve ever put in my mouth.

The band in this picture was a Dixieland Jazz band from Belgium.

The balconies and galleries everywhere were lush with greenery as well as chock full of decoration. They made walking an especially interesting adventure.

We were lucky and had Marlene to show us around on Sunday. I think we must have walked the entirety of the Quarter (she was a champ) and gave us the lowdown on local favorites and history, not to mention all the dirt on local film shoots. In keeping with my experiences thus far, meeting an old internet friend (8 years? A bit more?) for the first time in person was wonderful. She also went above and beyond the call of duty with an amazing gift baskets of snacks and goodies, of which we made SERIOUS use.

One of my favorite buskers during the Festival:

We spent a fair amount of evenings during the week on Frenchmen Street listening to local music. This was one of my favorite doorways:

Food and drink will likely have to be another post, but this picture really captures the mood during our vacation. The best part was that this sign was off Bourbon Street at a small, out of the way neighborhood bar.

Success, tentatively

I’ve been feeling a weird generalized anxiety lately. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I can tell you that watching the Sunday morning newshows doesn’t help. Lindsay Graham has the singular ability to jack my blood pressure into the roof.

Checking the LJ and rss feeds shows that my journal import has NOT in fact crippled the flist/feed. I’m really glad because it means all my yoga posts have returned. Now if only I could figure out what I was using to crosspost to wordpress.com, it would be amazing to have the same backup but I guess I can widgetize an alternative.

My only weird consequence is categories. I suddenly have a bajillion more categories than I’ve been using since the blog reboot and I haven’t sufficiently researched a way to condense them. Instead I’ve treed them under the reboot categories and just disabled the drop-downs so as not to clutter the page. Yay for tag clouds!

I’m reading God’s War by Kameron Hurley, which I first heard about in a Scalzi Big Idea post. As soon as I read that entry, I thought ‘That sounds awesome.’ Alas, when I went to add it to my Kindle wishlist, it wasn’t available in format. Insert frownyface. So imagine my delight when Books on the Knob announced that Nightshade was giving free ebook copies for a book club! I haven’t used calibre in a while, so I re-downloaded/installed and when the e copy arrived I converted it. So far I’m enjoying it as much as I hoped I would.

Speaking of enjoyment and Scalzi (I kind of was, right?) he gave up Coke Zero for Lent and I’m pretty sure it was the picture in that post which convinced me to try Coke Zero. No lie, it’s delicious. So I guess I’m going to take up Scalzi’s Coke Zero consumption for Lent and make sure Coca-Cola doesn’t lose any market share.

In Netflix movie news, I watched Chloe last week and I really enjoyed it. Not your typical psychological thriller but pretty fantastic nonetheless, with stunning performances all around. 4.5 of 5 stars

Last night we watched The Social Network (which means we might be the last people, ever) and I enjoyed it more than I expected. In fact, I found the Zuckerberg character to be kind of hilarious and Eduardo – I’m pretty sure he was intended to be sympathetic – to be a bit smarmy. After all, it cannot POSSIBLY be in dispute that had Zuckerberg NOT gone to Cali and hooked up with Sean Parker there is no chance Facebook would be what it is today. Also, Winklevi  = fail. Especially given that you settled for $65 mil and then sued AGAIN because $30+ mil A PIECE wasn’t ENOUGH? REALLY. All the win goes to Zuckerberg and I hope to Christmas his depositions were in fact that awesome because those scenes SLAYED me.

Unrelated, we watched Zach Galifinakis host SNL and it was funnier than I’ve seen it in a while. The musical act was a bit odd, so I googled/youtubed and was pleasantly surprised to find Jessie J has a great voice. I’m a bit sad that I’ve missed out this long probably because I don’t listen to popular radio but her album drops next month and I’ll definitely be picking it up.

NOLA is quickly approaching and I am EXCITED. Not just because I’ll get to wear shorts and blind the local population with my reflective fishbelly white skin but because FOOD. Food, y’all. It might as well be the sole reason I travel.

Holy shitballs, y’all

I have perhaps resurrected a large chunk of the old blog previously thought dead and gone. For some reason I didn’t remember I’d been using a widget that crossposted to wordpress.com? Anyhoo, logged in over there, exported the file, et voilà we have yogagrrl (albeit no longer yogagrrl). With any luck, my disabling the crosspost feature will keep me from killing anyone’s livejournal feed and/or rss. Fingers crossed.

Random things and yoga whining

1. My hair is long enough in the front for barrettes.

2. Banana chips are my latest favorite thing.

3. Banana chips are especially delicious with a chocolate Slim Fast. Just sayin’.

My yoga class tonight was a bit louder than usual, which can make the class more challenging. The teacher has to speak over the background noise (in this case a couple of instances of loud conversation) and the students have to work a little harder to concentrate. To put this in perspective, our class is held in a gym at the local college. It’s never going to be silent. Ever. In point of fact, our teacher also has classes elsewhere in town (as well as some other teachers) so it’s not like THIS class is the ONLY option. At the end of this class, after a particularly loud savasana, a few of the students complained about the noise.

Someone suggested that the college have the class elsewhere, the teacher began to agree and as I was leaving I tossed in my two cents. “If meditation was easy, everyone would do it.” The teacher’s eyes widened and she said, “That’s a good point! This is good practice for blocking out distraction.”

There is no perfect place for a yoga class. That’s right, there isn’t. Because YOUR perfect place is not EVERYONE’s perfect place. There are no completely silent classes – even if a teacher isn’t speaking (Mysore style) there is the sound of other people breathing and working out. Real life has challenges. If a mild amount of ambient noise in your yoga class is a big one, you’re BLESSED. Suck it up.

In my world

If you can’t even manage to get a Facebook page for your business, I feel like you’re saying “Fuck you, I DON’T WANT YOUR BUSINESS.” And therefore I don’t feel an obligation  to search out your GD phone number.

Great things about the internet

1. Netflix

2. wikipedia, for when a movie is so boring that you aren’t convinced you want to watch the whole thing you can look up the entire plot and make an informed decision

3. Tiramisu pancakes – The only thing better than a breakfast food is one that doubles as a dessert

4. Finding good fanfiction that you first read YEARS AGO and discovering that it’s still good. ahem.

Related:

2011 films

The Fighter – Dude. So good. Christian Bale is creepy fucking talented and if he doesn’t get the Oscar he’s being ripped off – not just for this role but because his entire body of work (except maybe Batman) is just incredible. He INHABITS these people. 5 of 5 stars

Centurion – I liked this far more than I’d expected. Bonus appearance of McNulty as Roman general (how much do I still miss The Wire?). Fairly typical, minus the stirring Gladiator-wannabe speech with a nice surprise of female badass badguys. Just a generally entertaining and solid watch. 4 out of 5

The End of the Affair – Dude. Great plot. SUCH A LONG AND DRAWN OUT PRODUCTION. They could have chopped a half an hour out of this flick and it wouldn’t have suffered a minute. This is the movie I referred to in my wikipedia shout out. Yes, I watched the whole thing. 3 of 5

Conversations with Other Women – I honestly can’t tell you why I watched the entire film. Soft spot for Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter, maybe? Interesting (if familiar) Before Sunrise type plot with a few unexpected twists. Enjoyable but not great. 3 of 5

Dear John – So much less god than the usual Nicholas Sparks film and not his ‘typical’ plot. In other words, I actually liked it. 3 of 5

Unrelated:

Sexy Valentine’s moment #12 – My left big toe, which I ran over with heavy equipment a while ago, shed its toenail. Less gross than anticipated but it turns out I’m probably lucky that I didn’t break the damn toe (having seen the damage).

Further unrelated:

After having a break from Yoga Journal for a while, I subscribed during their crazy $1.99 for 1 year deal and got my first issue today. It is surprisingly… light. Perhaps they’re shifting more content online? Guess I’ll have to check out their website.

In reading notes, I’m currently in the middle of Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest.