I'm not sure that anyone has high expectations for this movie, but you know you'll go see it anyway. You know you will.

And you'll leave and look at the people you went with and say "that was okay. A few funny lines."

But you're not going for you. You're going for the you who lived fourteen years ago back when the show made you laugh. And that you of the past thanks the you of the present for your patience and dedication.

I've started bringing glasses of strawberries with me to meetings. Look how red those are! Strawberries never look that good in Toronto, ever. And that's with a cell phone cam. And they taste soooooooooo good.

Glass of strawberries. Best idea ever.

I caught myself staring at Justin.tv for about an hour last night. Conan had warned me that it's addictive and it totally is, in some really weird way.

For everyone Not In The Loop, Justin.tv is a live web feed of a guy who is wearing his web cam 24/7. Really. Just like the Truman Show. You can see him sleep, go to the bathroom, go on dates, everything.

Try it.

DrJ recently pointed me to this tragedy: Aleja (who often pokes her head in here) needs a laptop. As DrJ writes:

"We think that Alejandra is a quiet hero, always willing to help other people, and is an active volunteer. And so we thought we'd see if we could get some funds together to get Alejandra a laptop computer powerful enough to run Second Life. There she can build an avatar and go running or swimming, or ballroom dancing, without the wheels always getting in the way."

This is an awesome cause; so take a second and check it out.

Yesterday someone asked me if I read a certain book that came out early this year. He didn't have to get to the title of the book before my mind already knew that the answer was "no".

That's when it hit me: I haven't read a single book in 2007. Not a single one.

It's the middle of April and I haven't read a single book?!

I used to eat books. Consume them like food. What happened? When did the reading stop?

I've been trying to trace back my reading habits. It seems like since late highschool, I've only read books that were recommended to me. Like, my time became too precious to "waste" on lame books, or something like that.

I've resolved to fix this lack-of-reading problem. So here we go! Time to bootstrap the reading process.

What book have you read in the last year that's been awesome?

I need some good books to sink my teeth into and I'm gonna use the lazyweb to do it. Ready? Go!

One of my recent hobbies has become food hacking at Google. After a recent rejigging of the microkitchens, Google has started offering healthy alternatives at their microkitchens rather than the previous candybonanza. This means that between meals, if you want to pick up a snack, you're likely to find things like healthbars or a hard-boiled egg.

Of course, rather than breaking down and sobbing over the lack of gummi bears, I see this as a challenge! How do I combine the available snacks to create amazingly tasty treats?

Well, this morning I think I beat out the chocolate dipped orange slices that I made last week with the espresso steamer. Presenting: Catspaw's Google Banana Sundae.



To create this amazing dish from microkitchen ingredients you will need:

• One banana
• Five strawberries
• Two squares of organic dark chocolate
• One vanilla yogurt from the fridge
• A knife
• A bowl
• A spoon

1. Slice the banana in half, and then cut it again lengthwise. Arrange the four pieces in the bottom of the bowl.
2. Pour the vanilla yogurt on top of the banana slices.
3. Cut the strawberries in half or thirds and sprinkle on top of the yogurt.
4. Break the squares of chocolate into tiny pieces with the edge of the knife and sprinkle on the very top.

Seriously, this is like sooooooooo good. Highly recommended. Five stars. Great seller, would buy from again. A+++++.

Ever see a commercial for a really tasty foodproduct and think "mmm, I could totally go for that burger right now"?

Check out this page: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality.


Sometimes the real food doesn't look quite as tasty as the ad. Ew.

I was on the phone with a friend yesterday and he mentioned the phrase "bucket of aspartame". (You expect me to have normal conversations?) It got me thinking: what would a bucket of aspartame look like? Is it a gel? Crystals? I pulled out wikipedia and did a search for it.

Now that I'm out of the Formal Education system and everything I learn has to be self-directed, I've found that I've returned to the type of learning that used to happen before I ever entered the academic world: I hear something I don't know, or don't know everything about, and I want to learn more. And often learning about it makes me want to learn more about something else that's related.

For the past seven days, I recorded every wikipedia article that I went to.

Here's what a week of wikipedia looks like to me:
Neural network, Deep Blue, Algorithm, DNA, Neuron, Qualia, Pituitary gland, Alan Turing, Strong AI, Baccha, Kinsey Reports, DoubleClick, Durian, Alison Bechdel, Tom Robinson, United States Department of Veteran Affairs, United States Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Fireworks, Anticipatory grief, Kubler-Ross model, Adult Swim, Vaudeville, Dickie, Blood+, Blood: The Last Vampire, Limbo, Purgatory, Morchella, SQL injection, Aspartame.

What have you wikipedia'd so far today?

Yikes. It's been quite a day here in SF.

First there's an exploring tanker that melts the steel on a highway bridge and causes it to collapse.

And then a few hours later, the neighbourhood emergency alarms go off (the ones that are installed in SF primarily for earthquake reasons). After an army of firemen arrive outside my door, it turns out to be due to a local fire, not a larger disaster.

However the combination of the two reminded me to put together an earthquake go bag. Now all I need to do is put together a "we're gonna sink any day now" bag. Thanks SUVs. Thanks.