nmcfarl

Ginger Beer Recipe

1c brown sugar,
3/4 c white
microplaned ginger, 1 large head ,
cream of tartar, 1 ounce; (for heft, works with out)
boiling water, 8 cups.

Mix and cover them up close for one hour, then add:

15 drops - essence of lemon
2 spoonfuls - yeast

Strain, bottle in plastic soda bottles.

Let brew 24-48 hours or until the bottles are well pressurized.

Serve with lime.

Spicing that works - well:

1 clove
1 tsp cinnamon
1 dash regans orange bitters
Pequin pepper

Obama!

A few quick pics, and an MP3 from the scene of a spontaneous Obama victory celebration at Pike and Broadway, at 1am, after it had died down. A Lot.

iPhone Vote Electoral Calculator

I'm going to be mobile tomorrow. And I'm a political junkie. I want to calculate up Electoral Vote scenarios on the fly. On my iPhone.

This turns out to be a problem -- every one seems to seriously love flash. Or Java. But not plain old HTML/AJAX which is what I need.

But not quite every single site -- Ahimsa Ahren has put together an iphone friendly map! And now I can geek out on the go :)

CW Was in the WSJ today!

Now we only need the FT for me to be done with all my press goals :)

It was a general transcription round up, and we did well. The company that seemed to take the most pains with accuracy. And: The attention to detail showed in our order: We were constantly surprised that phrases or names that other companies missed, from "tabula rasa" to "turducken" (it's a Cajun specialty), were identified and spelled correctly.

Not bad, though we were the 2nd most expensive. Still we got the top billing below, and I think the best review. The article

PFI Day!

This morning I went hunting for ingredients. And boy did I find them.

PFI most notably had an elderflower syrup, which is St Germain, without the alcohol. It is amazing.

In the drinks department I found Island Style Ginger Beer - which is the best ginger beer in a bottle yet. Clearly they use chile peppers -and boy does it rock. I think I'm going to have to add some chile to my next batch.

Also lemon stuffed olives, olive oil, and apricot paste. If I can't make something out of that....

Then we hit the winemaking store under the market. Champagne yeast for the Ginger Beer. And an assortment of bottles -- though Jane did get the most awesome one - a clear 1 liter Grolsch-style.

And finally we headed upstairs to Tenzing Momo where I picked up some Quassia and Gentian for my run at some bitters. An excellent store - now I wish I knew more about arcane herbs and spices :)

Portland - Sunny Portland

This morning we hit the road before we hit coffee. And we hit coffee at Stumptown, completely appropriate as we headed out to PTown for a mini break. Sunny Sunny PTown as it turns out.

We landed around lunch time in the Pearl District - had some pretty excellent baguette sandwiches at a sidewalk cafe, and then hit the chic boutiques, style'n home decor shops. And Powell's technical books - where I got a book on Erlang.

After 3 hours of wondering we packed up and headed to our hotel - the incredibly hip, absolutely brand new (they opened for biz just 17 days ago) Hotel Modera.

To sum up - Portland is excellent!

It's snowing on twitter.

This is a big deal:

(robdolin): ! Big snow flakes in downtown Seattle
(jmelloy): Tracking "Seattle" means a bunch of people shocked by snow.
(djwudi): Snow in North Seattle!
(SngForgiven): It's finally snowing! Because now I wont have to hear people going on and on about how it might snow. I think Seattle is afraid of snow.
(ryanstewart): Crap, it's snowing in Seattle. Bummer.
(reboog711): @ryanstewart I thought Seattle only had Rain?
(jimreppond): snowing hard now in Seattle. That's it! I'm done showing townhomes for the day. Time for wine& football.
(echuckles) journal-writing and watching the huge snowflakes fall out the window. all i need is some tea and i'm a fucking seventy year-old.
(monde): Snow in Seattle, seemed like S3 was having DOS up here, but all is well now
(kickstand): It's snowing!! (We don't get much in Seattle)
(libraryman): It's snowing in Seattle! Very pretty and (fairly rare too).
(natala): Seattle!! They are calling it a white out!!! I love snow. Cubes too.
(CurrencyNala): Bellingham is snowy and icy. How is seattle?
(davewolf): Snow in Seattle? Really @ryanstewart?
(theprint): Yay, snow in Seattle. I get to laugh at everyone freaking out over a little powder. Snow noobs.
(doulweapons): I hear It's snowing in seattle
(cemcatik): It's fricking snowing in Seattle!
(cunninghizzizam): Yeah. Snow and seattle don't mix well.
(kvwong): it's snowing in seattle!!!
(Blogography): Watching it snow... Seattle side. Scary when that happens.
(yvettemn): Snowy Saturday in Seattle
(nmcfarl) Snow, snow, snow, snow! Snow, snow, snow, snow! Just sooooooo pretty out there.
(ryanstewart): I love the Seattle Twitterers. I feel like we're a big extended family sharing experiences across the city. I'll even count east siders.
(MarinaMartin): Seattle Snow: http://tinyurl.com/28ayp7
(tyr): @jimreppond Snow is seattle is so much fun! I love how it shuts the city down
(MarinaMartin): @sts9 You can have the Seattle snow. I'll ship it to you. FedEx. @robertmerrill you'll take care of it right? :)
(aceytech): Snowing Here in Seattle! http://urltea.com/296w
(nickf) is waiting for the flakes to stick deep enough so he can strap on his snowboard and ride down Fremont Ave!
(annahong): its snowing in seattle!
(coxdr): Laying in my hospital bed watching out the window at thick snow falling from the Seattle skies. Beautiful!
(tiffehr) The snow has me calling all my family members to figure out plans, schedules, who's got snow, who'll be around for skiing....
(TVMediaAG): @MarinaMartin holy cow, snow in seattle, I have to call my parents!

Due to the collection mechanism the order of this list is only roughly cronological

Winter

It's 5:30, it's pitch back outside, and not much brighter inside Vita. The spotlights shine on the art that lines the walls, but it's the glow of the computer screens that illuminates the people, well except for one. That woman, who is occupying the other half of my table, is lit by not only the glow of her powerbook, but also by the creepy white and red neon of the Vita gnome. It's all very atmospheric, all very cold, and winterlike, and I want nothing more than a porter and blanket, both of which await me at home. But I have miles to go before I sleep.

Bits of lyrics pasted together

These snippets come from the most recent (and most excellent) Iron and Wine album, The Shepard's Dog. The lyrics just caught in my head, and sorta flowed together bits from this song and that. When they are written done they come together nicely enough. Although they are really quite depressing and I probably should try to play less of this and more of something bouncy, and thus steer me away from the start of winter blues. Anyhow:

Every morning there were planes
The shiny blades of pagan angels in our father's skies

Said the plain clothes cop to the Indian chief:
"I've made nothing but an honest mistake"

Here's a prayer for the body buried by the interstate

Big black cloud was low and rolling our way

No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone

The daughter of a lawyer told the fallen priest:
"It's a cold, cold place in the arms of a thief"

A boy with a coin he crammed in his jeans
Then making a wish he tossed in the sea

Reaching out to touch the steering wheel she said:
"Leave me alone, but just don't leave me here, alright?"

There is a house by the sea
And an ocean between it and me

Quotes that say what I mean to say #1

A framework and a set of Google Gadgets for building "social applications" misses the point. We don't want to build more applications that look like Facebook applications. It isn't about a social UI. It's about deeper re-use of social data to enliven any application

--- Tim O'Reilly on the Radar blog: Mark Cuban, Facebook, and OpenSocial