A Fellow of Infinite Jest...

On Signing My Name

2009-07-15T17:15:50Z

When I was a kid, I never had many reasons to sign my name. I am guessing that since it is illegal to enter into a contract with a minor, it isn't too important to educate children on the fine art of the signature. Fortunately, my teachers were very practical in high school, and classes like "English Prep," "Health," and "West Virginia History" actually had segments on useful skills like, paying your taxes, balancing a checkbook, and drafting formal letters, or I would have been in the same shape as most of my contemporaries upon my graduation from High School: (IE: woefully under-prepared for most of the actual day-to-day business of being a householder.) So I was semi-prepared, but on the matter of my signature, as in matters of penmanship in general I was completely clueless.

So when I joined the military, that was the first instance really, of someone saying "put your John Hancock here." I can remember this first instance very clearly, I was signing my enlistment paper.

The next surprise was that me slowly scrawling "Steffan Ziegler" was not enough. Apparently there were RULES to signing your name.

I was informed that I needed to sign my "PAYROLL Signature," which seemingly had to be exactly the same as the way I'd filled in the little Name Boxes on the initial enlistment form, where dutifully I had filled in First Name, Last Name, Middle Initial (because that's what the form had asked for.) If I had wanted to sign without my middle initial, then I should have left it off the form. I could fill out a new form, but then I'd need to go back to all the people that had made marks on that form all day (the doctor for the physical, the psychiatrist, the aptitude tester, etc) and have them all fill out things again. Typical military, lack of info leads to a mistake, that then becomes YOUR problem to resolve. Lesson One, Day One.

Now I don't HATE my middle name. I like it and its representation of clever compromise (Robert for people on BOTH sides of my family>) But my middle name is just not part of my mental identity, unless of course, I'm in trouble. ("Steffan ROBERT Ziegler, if I have to check under your bed for those shoes, you are going to be IN TROUBLE.") So since there is no real animosity towards that R, I opted to let it slide, and re-signed a fresh new final enlistment form as: "Steffan R. Ziegler," and I doomed myself to signing my middle initial forever. Mystery asked me one day when it was that she was signed up for having her full middle name published and requested on everything, and I had to confess to not knowing in her case, but for me, I can tell you definitively that I ceased being "Steffan Ziegler" and started being "Steffan R. Ziegler" as far as the MACHINE was concerned, on the day I signed that form.

As far as *really* signing my name though, I didn't actually start doing that for a while. I wrote my name, like I was writing an address, until I got to my first duty assignment. I had this job where I had to print out classified forms. Protection of classified data has a kind of "chain of evidence" feel to it, each handler has to sign to show that classified material went from one pair of hands to another. Since I worked in the room where these things originated, I had to sign out around 200 printouts daily. So I signed my name 200 times daily. In the process of writing my name so many times, I developed a very lazy way of doing it, where I never lifted the pen from the paper, and wrote my name as if I were writing an address, which leads to the sort of swoopy scrawl that is my signature now. "S to the teffan and then go back to catch the cross on the T, R for robert and drop down to make the DOT and Z to the iegler swooping back to dot the I," If you have a print of mine, my signature is probably in the lower right corner. In fact, you can see it on the enlargement of the minotaur print on this page:

http://www.barenforum.org/exchange/exchange_35/ziegler.html

It leads to a nice megalomaniacal flourish, all out of being very very tired of writing my name.

This is all good up until recently, when I've noticed that I will write my signature until the "R" in my middle name, and then I get this sort of mental lapse where I forget what comes next, and I try to pick up my signature at the "Z" in "Ziegler" and find that I've completely forgotten how that works in concert with what I've just written. So now my smooth swoopy scrawl more and more frequently is akin to "Steffan R. Ziegl... whatever." My signature mojo is all out of whack. And you can completely tell by looking at it on all my photocopied checks. You have to have some internal confidence to sign that self-important swoop. That hitch in the middle, is just like the big hitch in my gut lately.

They say your signature changes several times over your life, based upon mental lines in the sand that you are unaware are important to you, and I wonder if that's the case here? (I was gonna blame it on the R, hence all the R setup, but I don't really have a problem with it honestly, it's all very unconscious.) So I don't really know what's up with all that.

Maybe I'm just really really distracted right now.

Urine Trouble - AKA: You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Pee on the Seat

2009-07-01T05:28:10Z

Just an illustration of how crazy things are becoming, I was at work the other day when two guys got into a fist fight in the hall.

A co-worker said he got off the elevator and heard "heavy breathing," and when he rounded the corner, one dude was beating the tar out of another.

My co-worker stuck around and gave his statement to the cops, and because of this, he heard the story.

Dude 1 apparently pees all over the toilet seat, all the time.

Dude 2 is uptight about that, and puts up little notes in the bathroom. I took a picture of one last September:

Anyhow. Dude 2 was in the bathroom and FINALLY caught Dude 1 in the act, so he confronted him about it, and Dude 1 beat the tar out of him.

Peeing on the seat, is very serious business.

Nanowrimo story?

2009-07-01T01:06:47Z

Remember that nanowrimo story? The one I was going to write in November but didn't do but one part of over on tiny_dr_freud?

http://tiny-dr-freud.livejournal.com/533.html#cutid1

Well, that thing is rolling around in my head, damn near perfectly formed, from beginning to end, ready to unspool onto the page, and it's driving me crazy.

I just don't have the time or energy to let it out.

It's rare that I get an idea that has such a complete story arc, usually I'm making it up as I go. usually when I have a complete story, I've stolen it from someplace.

The really sad part is that the part I *did* write is just the intro, the technical part, and it was designed to be a technical whitepaper, so by its nature, it is a little dry.

The story isn't dry in the slightest, I promise.

Anyhow, someday I'll finish it.

Things are getting too serious.

2009-06-26T13:39:07Z

Do something nice for yourself today.

"Last night the wife said, poor boy, when you're dead, you won't take nothin with you but your soul."

-The ballad of john and yoko.

My pop used to have a CB Radio back when I was four or five. I remember that his call sign was Poor Boy.

There is something to be said about being poor (yeah, IT SUCKS) but in all honesty, I don't know anyone who has all they need, or at least, who *thinks* they have all they need. Having things, seems to be a route to having more things.

Pursuit of things, ultimately, does little to make you feel whole inside.

In the fantastically under-appreciated film, "Gremlins 2," there is a real estate magnate who watches as the tiny monsters tear apart his high rise. When asked if he felt bad about the ruin, he said, "...maybe it wasn't a place for people anyway. It was a place for things. You make a place for things...(and) things come to live in it." Maybe it's the same if you make your life a place for things.

What would you do if you had to settle for what you have? What would you do if you couldn't have any of it tomorrow, but you could still do whatever you wanted to?

That is what you NEED to be doing, right now.

saint_monkey @ 2009-06-25T07:28:00

2009-06-25T14:28:59Z

Nothing to report at the moment.

In the future, we all eat bugs:

2009-06-01T20:39:57Z

http://www.slashfood.com/2005/10/27/scorpion-lollipops-and-the-future-of-microlivestock/

...In the future, a bug-rich diet is all but unavoidable if we don't want to continue polluting our ever more overpopulated planet or end up eating soylent green. As (William) Lyons (of Ohio State University) points out, " If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would relax the limit for insects and their parts (double the allowance) in food crops, U.S. farmers could significantly apply less pesticide each year." He also adds that the insects we do eat and don't know about actually boost the nutrition content of the foods they fall into. Which would you rather have less protein or less DDT?

Steffan's Rules of Crisis

2009-05-26T21:33:23Z

I've been living daily with crisis for many many years.

I think I qualify by now as an expert. I've been noting and jotting down some "rules of crisis" on my various whiteboards forever, and I thought I'd share my refined list:

1) Crisis is sometimes not a crisis.

Try not to let other people define your crisis. Whether it's chicken little, the boy who cried wolf, or just Somebody Else's Problem, sometimes people blow things out of proportion and they just are not correct in their assessment of the issues.

2) Crisis manifests at the narrow end of the funnel.

Like an iceberg, 2/3rds of any crisis is submerged. The point of pressure isn't the point where things are going wrong. Examine the whole process!

3) Unresolved crisis expands to fill any available resources.

Crisis abhors a resource. It eats time and people. Furthermore, you can't usually staff your way out of a crisis. Unresolved issues and bad policy are not eliminated by more players or more time in the game. This only results in more people doing it wrong longer.

4) Crisis does not resolve itself.

If you had a crisis and it's gone, find out who fixed it. If no one fixed it, then it's probably still a crisis.

5) Sometimes you are the crisis.

Through ignorance, negligence, or sheer stubbornness, you could be part of the problem. Ask yourself; "Can this be resolved by removing me from the process?"

ADAM WAS ROBBED.

2009-05-21T13:24:18Z

That is all.

babies are up, sell! sell!

2009-05-15T14:01:16Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/18/birth-rate-us-baby-boomers

This isn't in the news as much as it should be. Birth rates in the US have been spiking. In 2007, the birth rate surpassed the baby boom. My bet is that it has probably increased further since then. There will be a census soon, we will know more then, I bet.

Most articles seem to focus on the teen pregnancy rate (increasing, every story has a file photo of Bristol Palin,) or on the unwed mother percentage (something like 40%, also with file photos of Bristol,) but I am curious as to how this factors into decisions like universal health care, social security, education, and whether these people will decide to buy a lot of art to put up in the baby's room.

Perhaps I should take a cue from Vicki and start printing bunnies?

kanye west on twitter...

2009-05-13T13:21:33Z

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3106=231840_-1__0_~0_-1_5_2008_0_0&em3161=&em3281=

WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I'M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I'M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I'M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I'M NOT AND I'M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN'T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF.

In which Steffan is asked to Twitter-ize it, and feels like a dinosaur.

2009-04-30T13:54:15Z

I posted this up in response to something chiller noted, namely, that it seems that people are sending one-topic emails of one-line or less at work. She asked if anyone else had noticed this as well. Of course I have:

At work I often have to troubleshoot issues and explain what occurred when end-users screw up the data, and then further complicate things by screwing up the data change requests.

I used to give thorough comprehensive explanations, starting with the background, then go into how this occurred, what was done to correct, how we can prevent for the future, etc. Nothing extra, just the issue and the possible actions, so that the Project Manager can recommend a path to the client. These emails are rarely more than 1000 words. Usually much less.

My boss recently brought me in to say that he was concerned about the time it took to write these, and asked me to "twitter"-ize my emails.

"Just one or two sentences, Steffan. If people want to know the background, they'll contact you. No one has time to read all those paragraphs anymore, especially when you are looking at it on a blackberry along with everything else you get in a day. Just tell them what they need to DO."

The fact that these people will be acting on a situation while essentially ignorant of the facts behind it, doesn't seem to be a problem.

All of the other responses to chiller's question were one line only. "Yep, been seeing it since 1996." etc. No long anecdote to relate, just "I-firmative, trend noted and catalogued."

I am a dinosaur.

saint_monkey @ 2009-04-28T06:33:00

2009-04-28T13:37:20Z

I realize that yesterday's post was less than useful, therapeutically.

It might be fun to imagine resolving your troubles with mankind by wishing them into oblivion.

But it isn't a very useful tool for coping with the ACTUAL harsh realities. We should take charge of our own fears and work with our own perceptions and shape those into healthy ways to resolve them.

So as an alternative, I invite you to imagine that everyone on the planet has suddenly become a happy clown!

No.... that's MUCH worse.

saint_monkey @ 2009-04-27T11:13:00

2009-04-27T18:14:56Z

I encourage you to imagine that everyone on the planet has mysteriously vaporized.

Parking is abundant.

You are free to engage in dubious fashion choices.

Your twitter account is strangely silent.

There is no obvious downside.

saint_monkey @ 2009-04-17T06:29:00

2009-04-17T13:48:37Z

Recently I learned that a friend had died. I don't think I react to this type of thing the way I should, at least not outwardly.

Larry (the friend) was the printmaking tech at the University of Washington, where I got my printmaking degree. I saw him just about every day for four years. He was much more involved in my day to day work than my professors. He was just an encyclopedia of technique. My teachers would say that it couldn't be done, and I'd go to Larry and he would help me find a way. Nothing was impossible. He was a very funny, very smart guy with a lot of eccentricities that made him unique and interesting. I felt a lot of kinship to Larry, just in personality and style. Larry was young, so mentally I counted on having him around for a long time yet.

So I've been thinking about this guy, and I can't quite come to grips with his death. I had a dream where I went to the UW to just be there and look around. In the dream Larry was alive, doing all the restocking and prep work that he did every morning. I told him I thought that he had died, and he looked down at me (he was a big guy) and his eyes were these tiny metal clocks, spinning. "There is too much to be done." He said, and I knew that he *had* died, but he was working anyway, because the job wasn't complete.

How terrible! This dream is completely my own fear, that I will die with so much left to do, and not even know what that work even *was.* Not some nine-to-five, that's for sure, but the thing I'm *supposed* to do. I don't think Larry's work is in my dream as his *job* but more as his unrealized potential. All the life he had left to live, but didn't, because of a bum heart.

In which Steffan proves that he is both an idiot and a good troubleshooter.

2009-04-12T15:44:10Z

We had the oil changed in our car last week.

Right after that, I started noticing that whenever I'd hit the brakes, there would be this "pop" sound as we rolled to a stop.

If we stopped gently, it didn't happen. If we stopped abruptly, it would.

It happened much more frequently when braking while going downhill. (Which is a lot of the time here in San Francisco.)

Since I don't like to mess around with the brakes, I took time out on Friday to try and drop it by the car repair place, but they were slammed. They suggested I bring it in tomorrow morning.

Later as Mystery and I were driving around, I thought about all these symptoms, and something about it all really nagged me. I had Mystery check the area under the driver's seat, and sure enough, there was an empty bottle there.

We picked up the bottle and the sounds stopped. The "pop" was the bottle hitting the seat support. Gentle braking wouldn't dislodge it, and sharp braking would. Going downhill would dislodge the bottle more frequently than braking on a level surface.

I'm glad I didn't take it in, but I wonder how many times that happens to service centers?

saint_monkey @ 2009-04-02T06:13:00

2009-04-02T13:14:16Z

i need to make something.

Allah supports us, but we are the architects of our own souls.

2009-03-18T04:59:21Z

I'm watching American Idol, and Danny Gokey just got done singing the Carrie Underwood song, "Jesus take the wheel."

I'd heard the song before, but when Danny sang it, I could understand the words, which I'd never really paid attention to:

"Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was so scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel"

This reminded me of a story told to me once by a DOD contractor that I knew when I worked in the Air Force in the module where GPS Software was developed and tested.

This particular defense contractor worked for an aerospace company, (my rusty mind wants to tell me it was Lockheed Martin, so let's just go with that,) and they had sold a middle eastern government a number of fighter planes. (The timing of this tale, 1990 or 1991, makes me think it may have been concerning Kuwait.) Anyhow, several months after the sale, a number of the planes were involved in suspicious crashes, so the contractor I knew was part of an investigative team sent out to take a look at the software, which the engineers deemed to be the most likely cause.

The team arrived on site, tore apart the software and could not find anything out of the ordinary, so the team began looking in other places for the problem. After a while, they got around to interviewing the pilots, and they discovered the source of the issue.

When the young pilots started out, they flew in aircraft with specialized training software designed to self correct in dangerous situations. The team found that during training, when the trainees would get into trouble, they'd let go of the stick and appeal to Allah for aid. The training software would then level out the plane, and the trainee would grab the stick once more and continue to fly the plane.

The crashes happened when the trainees would graduate to the real fighters. They could fly for months without getting into trouble, but once they did, they'd be tempted to just let go of the stick and appeal to Allah. The fighters were not loaded with training software, so they wouldn't auto correct. They would just corkscrew into the ground at the speed of sound.

The software team reported this to the air force for the country involved, and the air force suggested that it would be much easier to install the self-leveling features on the fighters than trying to alter the "software" of the pilots involved.

So that's what they did, and the crashes stopped.

Steffan's Philly trip

2009-03-14T18:35:28Z

So I showed up in Philly and promptly disappeared from LJ. I got really sick for the first week, and the second, I felt weak and miserable. It had to be because of a weakened immune system because of all the stress I'm under lately, because no-one else that I work with in Philly had so much as a sniffle. Other than that, I worked, and worked, and worked. Work is too ridiculous to talk about right now. Let's just say that litmus tests have been issued all around, and some parties passed, and other parties did not.

The sickness took me out of commission for most of the trip. My expense records are reciepts for cup-of-soup and sprite for three days. There was one bright spot when dagoski and his wife (who really should start a journal so that I can read more of her interesting musings from afar,) took me to see "North By Northwest" in the Phoenixville theatre. Seeing that classic up on the big screen was actually a real treat.

Earlier that day I went to the Fu-Wah mini mart in West Philly (44th and Baltimore.) For a fantastic fu-wah tofu sandwich. They still had it, but I was more impressed with their new Vietnamese Chicken sandwich, which was the best food I had in
Philly. Lots of pickled veggies, fresh jalapenos and fresh cilantro. I was proud of myself for remembering, and navigating to the Fu Wah mini mart from memory, but Philly doesn't change much.

Speaking of Philly not changing, Michael and Sundia's Manayunk based Coffee House "Grass Roots Coffee" seems to be no more, having been transformed to a passable (but not transcendent) coffeehouse called "Mugshots." It's sad, when the relatively small fraternity of truly transcendent coffeehouses looses a member to another "just another coffeeshop." At least it isn't a Starbucks. The new cafe seems to embrace Michael and Sundia's use of local farms and organic sustainable coffee, and the place has been re-set from Michael and Sundia's ambitious vision to a small place that serves coffee, bagels and panini once more, but I doubt you could go in, and talk with the owner about brownie recipes, and the importance of texture in a bagel, and get "under the counter" unpasteurized farm milk, and know that here is someone who reveres the gastronomical side of life as much as you do.

The new people couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me where Micheal and Sundia had gone. Probably back to New York. Here's hoping they could start the restaurant they dreamed of. If I ever find out, I'll call you, and we'll meet you there for a fantastic (and probably overpriced) meal.

So anyhow, I should be on my way back to San Fran right now, but Philly had another card to play. My original flight is delayed by 2 hours, which means I would miss my connection in Atlanta. I got on the phone and switched my departure from Philly to Atlanta, for a Philly to Salt Lake, Salt Lake to San Fran flight. The upside, I don't have to hunt for a connection in Atlanta, and will still get to San Fran today. The bad side, is that my flight doesn't leave till 5, and I will get to San Fran at 10 PM.

Blip

2009-03-07T21:57:14Z

On the topic of BLIP.

In Langhorne PA till 14 Mar 09

2009-03-02T13:05:58Z

So, flew into Philly yesterday evening on the wings of a snowstorm. Now snow when I arrived but you could feel it coming. So I got the rental car right away to beat the white stuff. I took a light side trip to South Street to pick up coffee to make in my little vietnamese coffee filter. (The last time I was here, the lack of coffee with sufficient punch was a big problem.) In a little bodega full of turkish condiments (Queen Market, on 4th,) I found Kurukaheveci Mehmet Effendi, a very good turkish coffee, which I knew would be the kind of fine grind needed for the filter, and very strong. When I took it up to the counter, the clerk asked me if I'd had it before, and I told him no, but that I'd always wanted to try it. "You are in for a treat, nothing is better than Turkish coffee. You know, they say in Turkey, If you and I sit down to share a cup of coffee," the clerk added, "it is as if you and I have also shared 40 years of friendship."

I have to add at this point, that South Street is desolate, looks like 1 in 5 stores are closed.

Anyhow, I got out to Langhorne just in time, it started snowing pretty heavily while I was out picking up supplies at Target.

It dumped something like 6 to 9 inches overnight. In the middle of the night the plows started running, and I thought the scraping was the garbage men in San Fran pulling the cans out of our basement. After the third or fourth pass I wondered just how many cans were down there, and if the garbage men were mad at the giant tube TV that our neighbors abandoned down there, when I remembered I'm in Langhorne again, and even if the TV is cheesing off the garbage men, I can't hear it from here.

Anyhow, I'll be here for two weeks, in room 1212 of the Sheraton Bucks County. Call my cell if you want to arrange something. I'll be leaving on the 14th. This time, though, it's all work and no (or very little) play, since it's pretty clear that even if I go into the office today, I doubt my trainee will. So I will very likely need to make up some work that I was going to do in the evenings, since minus one day will compress the training schedule quite a bit. He is carpooling with people that already work in the office and that have access to the inclement weather line, so he will probably hear if the office is closed today, whereas I will need to drive over there and check. Fortunately my vast, empty hotel is less than five miles from the office.

The local Fox station (Sue Serio, Philly never changes, although there was a marked lack of Dorothy Krischuk, maybe she's on vacation,) is showing pics of Manayunk under a ton of snow. Ha Ha Manayunk. They also showed that Sue Serio had knitted scarves for all the cameramen, which I thought was really sweet.

Well, it's 8 AM, so time to venture out into the wilderness. (Ah, wilderness!)

You Stay Classy, CBS

2009-02-25T05:01:26Z

Meme: Kitchen Habits

2009-02-09T22:28:27Z

This meme is designed to share your thoughts and practices on cooking. You're welcome to copy it on your blog if you wish.

1) Is your kitchen large, medium, or small?

Small. Smally-small-small.

2) How many people do you typically feed at the main meal of the day?

Just me and my Mystery.

3) How often do you cook recipes that require assembly (rather than just heating premade items)?

Once per day, at a minimum.

4) What is your favorite heat-producing kitchen appliance?

No Contest. La Pavoni Europiccola Lusso Espresso Machine. Does what it promises.

5) What is your favorite non-heating kitchen appliance?

Appliance? Probably the blender. It's amazing. I'm a bit afraid of it, because its IQ is higher than mine. It can make smoothies and go back in time to kill Hitler. I'd like to become better friends with the stand mixer though.

6) Do you like specialized gadgets and tools, or consider them a waste of space?

Specialized gadgetry kind of takes up room. But it is interesting to find a use for a specialized tool that you had never considered because you don't have anything else that fits the bill at the moment. Cheese graters for example, just get more and more useful as time goes on. But since space is at a premium in our kitchen, something has to be pretty useful before we will buy it.

I might add that I am a complete hypocrite here. The last thing I bought for the kitchen (other than the genius blender,) was a set of cast iron cornbread molds that could be used to make... well, only cornbread. But I still haven't decided if those are purely decorative or not.

7) Do you cook from recipes, by intuition, or both ways?

All three ways.

I love creating in the kitchen, and after I am confident in a regional style, I will throw things together without a recipe based upon the ingredients at hand.

Recipes are how you get skilled enough to become improvisational, and lots of the time, it's nice to just do kitchen grunt-work.

Finally, I often use cookbooks as regional maps, rather than specific destinations. For example, I own three or four cookbooks that I have not cooked many recipes from, but I will consult constantly to see how things are properly done for the region in mind. Cooking shows work well to fill this same niche.

8) How many cookbooks do you have?

Probably just under 100. There are maybe 20 that we use with regularity. Others come and go.

I'm going to add to the meme:

9) Which chef/cookbook author do you fancy yourself a "follower" of?

Jamie Oliver, not so much the person, or even his recipes, (i don't own a single cookbook of his, and have tried only two of his recipes) but I love his stylistic approach. One or two or three good things of "similar souls" mashed together in a stone mortar = one fantastic thing.

10) "Keep it simple?" or "Sauce it up?"

Keep it simple, of course. From time to time though, I can appreciate a good sauce.

Bailout

2009-01-06T17:18:07Z

I'm tired of fools
saying "it's a win win scenario"
and "no one ever loses!"

I had no desire
to be the collateral damage
at the end of those fuses

So I declined, and I was right
but now I'll have to suffer too,
to seal up that corrosion

I just wish I could say
that this time,
they're on their own for the explosion.

chi.mp

2009-01-05T17:13:45Z

Thanks to liz (toastednut) I've had a "chi.mp" account for about three or four months. Its a pretty interesting thing, all it really does is allow you to make a single URL where all your various web 2.0 activities are posted chronologically.

So a visitor going to http://steffan.mp/activity this morning...

First sees this post, then the flickr upload from this morning, then an earlier lj post, the black eyed pea stew recipe from the food blog from Jan 2nd, and then the LJ post from Jan 2nd, etc...

Essentially, one stop shopping for steffan related stuff. As I add new services, (like right now, I'm currently deciding whether I'm interested in the data aggregator, http://daytum.com, and the music preference tool http://last.fm) If I decide I like one of them, and would update it frequently, I can drop the RSS feed onto the chi.mp site and it would start adding updates there.

So what's this mean to you? (Unless you are my family, or otherwise care about getting all my ego-boost junk in one place, in which case, you'll want to bookmark http://steffan.mp/activity )

They've just sent me five invites to this beta service, and if this sounds like something you're dying to adopt, comment and I will arrange for an invite.

Favorite Music 2008?

2009-01-02T23:51:41Z

Yay for Advil. My brain is like, "OUCH," and Advil is like, "Chill, I'm sending the Wolf over," and my brain is like, "Sh!t, that's all you got to say." So mad props to Advil. You kill my liver, but make my head not hurty.

Thirdhand put up a list of favorite music all year:

http://thirdhand.livejournal.com/487322.html

So did pumpkinking (but his list is locked.) :P

http://pumpkinkingx.livejournal.com/193340.html

And I asked a co-worker for her favorite bands, and she said:

The Fashion
Razorlight
Mgmt
Vampire Weekend
Albert Hammond Jr
Bishop Allen
Luna (Not exactly this year, unless you count the greatest hits, apparantly)
VHS or Beta

You know what all the lists have in common? Vampire Weekend.

What's your favorite music of the year? (AND I GET IT, 'VAMPIRE WEEKEND' ALREADY! Other than that, OK?)