Welcome to Montyland!

Salad Spinner Suggestions?

2008-01-25T09:32:00.001-06:00

Our salad spinner broke this week as it took a dramatic plunge from the upper cabinet to the kitchen floor. There were springs and plastic bits everywhere. Does anyone out there in Montyland have any salad spinner suggestions? Ours was an OXO Good Grips spinner. While a salad spinner may seem like a commonplace item, they are surprisingly expensive for what they are. A good salad spinner can make or break a dinner. Noone wants soggy lettuce.

Office Depot treats their customers like CRAP

2008-01-16T21:28:00.000-06:00

Hello my blog readers. I wanted to share this with you. I for one am sick of the treatment I get at stores sometimes. I went to Office Depot near to, but still before, their closing time. I was greeted by a smiling manager, who, WHILE SMILING, locked the door in my face leaving me out in the snowy/crappy weather I braved to get to the store in the first place. I wrote this letter (below) to customer service. I don't think anyone will take this seriously besides me, but I will never be shopping at Office Depot again. If the manager did anything else but SMILE at me while he closed and locked the door I might forgive him, and the company, but his gesture was indicative of someone who was trying to be on a power-trip of some sort and got their jollies by leaving someone in the cold. Not the proper etiquette for someone representing an entire store if you ask me. Below is what I wrote.

Hello, I want to describe you you a store experience I had this evening, January 15th. It was for your store #2260 across from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. I arrived at your store a bit late, at 8:58 PM according to the watch I have (which is tuned to the atomic clock, so I know it is correct). I was a bit late (but still within store hours) because it is snowing/raining outside and conditions are fairly bad on the road. Your store says it is open until 9. I get there and the manager opens the door to let a customer out. I try to get in, saying I know exactly what I need and it is only one item. The manager smiles, locks the door in my face and walks away. If I didn't REALLY need what I was getting do you think I would have driven there in this rainy/snowy weather??!! I am very disgusted at the treatment I received ESPECIALLY since the store was technically STILL SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN! I do have a blog, and will be posting my experience on it for all to see. In this day and age of the internet, I would think you, as a large company would be more cognizant of the fact that EVERYONE has a voice and is able to use it. I will NEVER be shopping at Office Depot again. There are many options around for my office supplies and I will now be using them instead of you. Hopefully I can convince others of the same.

I hope you may see fit to train your employees in that if someone is coming to your store in snowy/rainy bad weather thy might REALLY need what they are coming for!! They should show some decency and let them in next time ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORE IS STILL SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN!

What I have found out about HDTV and QAM

2008-01-13T16:16:00.000-06:00

One day while bored, I made a great discovery about my television. I did not buy this television new, I received it for free over craigslist as it was broken. It just needed a new fuse and I was ready to go. It is a Samsung CRT at 32 inches. Well, as I said, I was bored and going through the diagnostic menus on the television. I saw one that said "1080i" for something or other and reasoned that my TV could get HDTV signals! All I needed was an appropriate tuner and an antenna.

So I purchased a used Sony HDTV tuner with and ATSC/NTSC tuner. I also bought a TERK amplified HDTV antenna for $30 on Amazon.com.

So, some definitions here.. ATSC tuners are able to pull in HDTV signals broadcast by local TV stations. NTSC is the old analog standard. Therefore, this tuner is able to pull in signals from the antenna and from the Comcast basic cable package I have. Very nice, except where I live I only get 2 HDTV stations this way.

I have read much about QAM modulation and most of the info out ther is very confusing. QAM is how cable companies such as Comcast send their HDTV signals. Local stations are sent out unscrambled, such that ANYONE WITH AN HDTV, A BASIC CABLE PACKAGE AND A QAM TUNER CAN GET HDTV! If you have these, there is no need to get the "HDTV" package that the cable companies push if you do not want anything more than local channels in HD. Most tuners now built into TVs have QAM but some don't, so you will have to check your specific TV set for this. If your's does not have QAM, you can get a set top box such as the Samsung DTB-H260F which is one of the only ones to have QAM at a reasonable price.

Basically, to sum up, if you only want local channels in HD (NBC, ABC, Fox, etc..) you might already have them if you have a basic cable set up. Check your TV instruction manual and see if you have a QAM tuner as well as ATSC/NTSC.

Hope this helps someone...

Overheard at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, TN

2007-10-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

A trailer for a biopic about Kurt Cobain had just played...

Girl behind me: Kurt Cobain is overrated because he's dead. Just like John Lennon.
Friend of girl: John Lennon? Are you serious?
Girl: Compared to the rest of the Beatles?? Yes!!

Yeah, like Ringo.

Comments about Constant Comment Tea

2007-10-19T15:07:00.001-05:00

So right now I am drinking a cup of Bigelow's Constant Comment Tea. I'm trying to figure out what the name means, and I figure it means that the drinker cannot stop making comments about this tea... that it invokes such a strong reaction in the drinker such that all other topics of conversation are thrown out the window.

I assume Bigelow would like the comments to be positive, it's not like someone commenting negatively about their tea would be good advertising. I bet the name came from long ago when a house guest of someone was so enamored with the tea that that's what they talked about for the whole dinner party. "Wow! You put orange rind and natural flavoring in your tea?! Amazing! I can't stop talking about it! What a country! In U.S.S.R. we do not have these sorts of delicacies. We only have artificial flavorings."

Yes, that person goes by the name Yakov Smirnoff.

Marvin Gaye Sings the National Anthem

2007-09-09T17:14:00.001-05:00

Mr. Rogers Speaks to the Senate in 1969

2007-08-26T15:23:00.000-05:00

My first video! This is a video of Mr. Rogers speaking to the senate in 1969. I often forget about Mr. Rogers, but I don't think I should forget about people like this.

10% Chance of rain today

2007-08-01T16:04:00.001-05:00

Today there was a 10% chance of rain in the Nashville area. I usually think that's so if it does rain, weather forecasters can say "see I told you it might" or if it doesn't rain they can say "yeah, I was pretty sure it wouldn't so I was right."

It poured today for about 30 minutes.

Bad Tshirt Design

2007-07-23T21:31:00.001-05:00

I submitted a crudely drawn T-Shirt to threadless.com for critique. I'm not really an artist, but I think it's funny. You can see the tshirt in the picture. If you would like to write a critique.. (the first one was pretty negative, but they clearly didn't get the idea)

You can see the site here.

Talking Heads Live in Rome 1980

2007-07-21T18:43:00.001-05:00

This is what makes me love YouTube (and Boing Boing for telling me about it).

Helio Ad Campaign

2007-07-17T17:15:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago I got an advertisement in the mail for a new telephone from the company "Helio". It was a large piece of plastic touting the virtues of their new gizmo. I was a bit appalled that in today's day and age of "greenness" and "saving the earth" companies would do a mass mailing of large plastic things that are probably going to go straight to the trashcan. There wasn't anything on it to indicate what type of plastic it was so that I might try to recycle it. I wrote them a message saying this and that I would NEVER buy one of their products based on this mailing alone. I don't care if they make iPhone2 or Wii2 or something that will walk on water for me. I'm not going to support this company.

However, today I got a nice email from their VP of Marketing.. I am happy the company took the time to write me and explain. However, it still doesn't explain why they though large sheets of plastic would be appropriate for mass mailings.

Hello Brian,

Thanks for reaching out. Your thoughts are important
to us, especially regarding an important topic like recycling, which we
participate in at our stores, in our offices and whenever possible with all of
our devices and other materials.

The plastic mailing you received is recyclable. As you may be aware, recycling laws vary from state to state and even city to city. Since this was a national mailing, we chose not to include the
symbol because we did not want to misinform people about local curbside recycling rules. We apologize if this caused any confusion and we'll be sure to include recycling instructions in the future.

The plastic mailing is PVC, which is the same material that
many consumer products and accessories are packaged in. While it may not qualify for curbside recycling in your area, this mailing can be recycled at
select recycling centers across the country. You can visit www.earth911.org to find a recycling center near you. On the site you will find a box at the top labeled “Find a Recycling
Center ” with a space for
“what” (PVC plastic) and “where” (zip or city,
state). When you enter your information a list of nearby locations will come up where the mailing can be dropped off.

If you are not able to drop the mailing off at a recycling
center, we are happy to recycle it for you. Just send us your address and we'll send you a return envelope so the mailing can be delivered to Helio and
routed to an appropriate recycling center.

Thank you again for your feedback. It's important to
us and we will be sure to include recycling symbols and/or instructions with
all future correspondence. We have asked our agency to remove your name
from the list.

4th of July

2007-07-05T07:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the 4th of July! Yay. It was a pretty good day for me. I made BBQ chicken and corn, saw the movie Transformers (which was pretty fun), and (most people would say bleagh) went to work and got some stuff done. The coolest part though was that I guess one of our neighbors is some sort of professional fireworks person, because 2 houses down, there was a 30 minute fireworks show! They also had classical music playing (just like most shows, but it reminded me of shows when I was a kid at the Oaks Mall). There were about 50 people there watching at the person's house, so we just watched the fireworks explode about 100 feet or so above our heads (I'm bad with vertical distance, so if that's too close to the ground, don't get offended). It was the first time fireworks going off in my neighborhood has been a welcome occurrence instead of an annoyance.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews: Ghost Rider

2007-06-23T21:09:00.000-05:00

Wow.. what a bad movie. I thought the special effects would be decent, but nope. I mean, it's a guy with a flaming skull for a head, how could that not look cool? Also, why in every bad movie regarding the devil, does the bad guy have to go.. "Now we are legion". To make it worse in this movie, the bad guy goes on to define exactly what legion is, just in case we weren't privy to the knowledge. Finally, when you already know one of the big plot twists from watching the preview.. well, that's not too good.

Anyway, to sum up, bad movie. Couple of cool effects with the bike.

Buffy Season 8

2007-05-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

Wow! Two posts in one evening! I also wanted to share that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comics are starting to come out. See the cover art at the left for issue 3. Pretty sweet. Anyway, I've read the first three and I just wanted to say they are exceptional. Great dialog and the art is top notch. For anyone who is a Buffy fan, I highly recommend getting these before they sell out. Issue 1 is already on it's third printing, and issue 2 is on its second. You can order them online here. I did and I was very impressed with the speed and how they were shipped.

Thirsty Thursday

2007-05-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

Today was Thirsty Thursday at the Nashville Sounds game. What does that mean? It means $1 beers. Lots of folks come out for this. Well, the stands were about 1/3 full, which is pretty good for the Sounds. The Sounds have great promotions... like Beef night. They also have this mascot that is a big yellow cat of some sort (see picture). His name is Ozzie. He is fairly scary looking, with fangs and a big red nose, like he has a cold or something. They have this tradition that in the middle of the innings, the mascot does something. One of the things he does is find a little kid from the audience, about 3-5 years old and then race him around the bases. If I was that kid I'd be completely scared out of my wits that a 6 foot bipedal sabre-toothed tiger was chasing me.

Riley

2007-05-10T20:08:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I wish it was about good news.. but today my mom's dog, Riley was put to sleep. He had an inoperable tumor in his stomach. It's sad.

Harry Potter Prediction

2006-12-22T15:09:00.000-06:00

With the release of the new title for the seventh Harry Potter book, I was thinking about the sixth, where Harry went off in search of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort. I think Harry's scar (or Harry himself) might be one of the Horcruxes. I'm not sure, and I am probably wrong, but this would explain Voldemort's inability (or reluctance) to kill Harry given the number of chances he's had. Also if a Horcrux is supposed to be something that is important or significant to Lord Voldemort, what would be more significant than the boy prophesied to kill him?

What do you think?

Wireless Solution for an old Powermac G4

2006-09-25T22:42:00.000-05:00

I needed to get my Mac online so I could stream music to it from a server upstairs to the living room, where I have the Mac hooked up. I wanted 802.11g but the G4 only supports the old AirPort cards (802.11b and about $100 on eBay). I found a Belkin Wireless PCI card, model F5D7000 version 4 on eBay for $30 shipped. I plugged it in and the OS 10.4 detected it as an AirPort card! Version 5, the one currently sold in stores, does NOT work (tried that one first). So, for those looking for a cheaper solution to get an old Mac on a wireless network (and at faster speeds than the AirPort card), this is it... (make sure it is version 4 though... I am not sure about versions 1-3 although I have heard that they may work OK).

Power Ballads

2006-07-13T12:57:00.000-05:00

Today at lab we had a discussion about the genre of popular music known as the Power Ballad. A couple members of the lab (one in particular) argued the the Power Ballad is still a viable musical entity and that it should get the props it deserves. He cited such classic bands as Cinderella, Journey and Warrant to prove his point. My argument is that the Power Ballad genre reached its zenith in the mid to late 1980's since there do not seem to be any recent smash-hit Power Ballads. However, I could be very wrong about this... (Seriously though, can you name the last recent Power Ballad? I can't. The most recent one we came up with was Guns n Roses' November Rain).

We then searched Amazon.com for "power ballad" and found, to our surprise, 12 different compilations of Power Ballads. Some were better than others, but they got us thinking, what actually comprises a Power Ballad? There were several selections that none of us would classify as Power Ballads. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is a Power Ballad? And who is the "McAuley Schenker Group" featured on "Feelin' Like Makin' Love: Romantic Power Ballads"? One co-worker thought that R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion was one, to which I disagreed because it prominently features mandolin.

I thought about it a bit, and there are certain characteristics that I think automatically puts a song into Power Ballad territory. Most have to do with lyrics, but musically, I would say most, if not all, Power Ballads use Power Chords and are a bit down-tempo. Late in the song, there will be a dramatic key-change-for-effect, which will be immediately preceeded by a small bit of silence. Lyrically, it helps to write a song about flowers or plants that can hurt you (thorns on roses are most popular, but I think a Power Ballad about a Venus Flytrap would be pretty cool) or about birds soaring high and then falling. Basically, nice images gone awry. The word "love" is usually in the title, or some statement about how I (the singer) was dumb and should have known you were spiffy while we were an item.

What does everyone think about Power Ballads? Can anyone name some more characteristics of them? I'm doing this quickly so I'm sure I forgot many. Can anyone name a recent one?

My First Mac

2006-06-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

Recently I was given a Power Mac G4 (one of the graphite boxes). It's a 400 mHz computer. It is my first real experience with a Macintosh computer. I got some RAM off of eBay and put in an old hard drive and optical drive and I was good to go. I have to admit, I really like it. It's a bit difficult to get set up (the printer setup was a bit annoying), but now I have a pretty kick-butt little media center. I can play all my mp3's, record from vinyl or cassette tape and it'll even play DVD's with surround sound. My main problem was that I wanted to put it downstairs, while the internet hookup is upstairs. The only wireless solution I could use was the Apple Airport which was really expensive (about $100.. way too much for a "free" computer. I ended up buying an ethernet bridge designed for XBox. It was $19.99 on Amazon and it works perfectly! Right now I am recording the old Thompson Twins album "Into the Gap" to mp3. Ken of "Ken's Blog" will be happy with me because I am using an open source solution to do this. The program is called Audacity and it is really powerful and useful once you figure it out.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews - the Da Vinci Code

2006-05-21T00:14:00.000-05:00

On Friday night we went to see the Da Vinci code. It was bad. End of review.

Our Outdoor Kitty

2006-05-07T22:37:00.000-05:00

We have a cute kitty that comes by and meows. We call him "little cat" and "outdoor cat". He has a yellow bell and collar on him, and lives at various houses and backyards in the neighborhood. He also likes to torment our cats, Zina and Monty, through the glass of our storm doors.

2006-04-11T23:04:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a port-a-potty in Washington DC this past weekend. I have to say I think it's the best slogan I have seen in a while.

My New Used Car

2006-04-11T22:58:00.000-05:00

Hi there everybody! I finally am getting around to posting pics of my new used car. It is a 1996 Honda Ac cord, and I think it's pretty spiffy. Check it out.

Boing Boing: How to paint anything the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge

2006-04-11T22:56:00.000-05:00

This is a cute story about a person trying to paint something the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't know why I think it's cute, but I do.

Boing Boing: How to paint anything the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge

Kitchen Countertop

2006-03-14T22:53:00.000-06:00

I'm just full of all the new stuff this week, huh? Last week a friend gave us a dishwasher since they upgraded. We decided to install it, but found out that the countertop was about 2 inches too short. Therefore, since we already tore out the cabinet and made a mess, we decided to put in a new countertop. I think we did a pretty good job, it looks pretty professional! It feels good that we upgraded our 70's looking kitchen to looking like the mid 90's. At least 1994, maybe summer of '95.

Netflix Frequent Renter Throttling

2006-02-24T17:14:00.000-06:00

You have probably read about the tactics of Netflix to "Throttle" frequent renters by now. If you haven't, it has been discovered that Netflix slows down the turnaround time for DVDs for customers that watch a certain number of movies. Well, I believe that I have been throttled. It takes on average 2 days longer for them to receive and send me out a new movie. Plus, recently about 20% of the movies I've received have been damaged or otherwise unwatchable due to scratches or big gouges in the disc. I'm not going to quit yet, but this is definitely a disturbing trend. Does this happen to anyone else?

Bye Bye Geo

2006-02-23T14:26:00.000-06:00

I sold my car this morning, the black one to the left. The people came, drove the car and loved it. Then they went to the bank to get the money. When they went to the bank, I washed the car so it looked pretty. About 20 minutes later, I get a phone call from them saying that they got into an accident on the way home from the bank! They ran into a parked car while trying to avoid a semi or something. Now... (in a Cosby style) I had told them that there was a problem with the sunroof leaking and I had fixed it. It hadn't leaked since Christmas. So I get in the car to go pick them up, and whaddya know?? the sunroof leaks all over me and the car so the inside of the car is all wet when I pick her up from the accident. She gave me the check and then the car started leaking again on the check. Great. However, she still wanted the car, gave me the check and was really happy about everything. eep.

The Jam of the Year

2006-02-12T13:13:00.000-06:00

Our jam from Trader Joe's recently ran out, and since we don't have a TJ's here, we thought we'd go to the local store to find a good jam. Nope. All had these crazy ingredients like FRUCTOSE (he he to Dave Quinn). No, seriously, all jam needs is berries, pectin, sugar and lemon juice. The jams with only those ingredients were like $4.50 for a small bottle. To make a long story short, we decided to make our own jam. Simple recipe... 1 3/4 cup sugar, 10-12 oz berries, 3 oz liquid fruit pectin and 1 tbs of lemon juice. Then cook for an hour. The tricky part is putting it in the jars. You have to sterilize them by boiling, then put the jam inside. Then you cap them and invert for 5 minutes. Then you let them cool in their normal upright state. You hear a "pop" which means the the lid is airtight and it is ready for storage. Our first jam was blackberry. Mmmmm... it was sooo good.

So, a not so interesting post, but it's what's on my mind today.

Birds on a Wire

2006-01-31T23:32:00.000-06:00

On "Ken's blog" there was a post that overhead power lines were unsightly.. This picture is so pretty, the birds look like music notes on a staff. One point for overhead power lines! This picture was taken in San Diego, CA by Vladimir Jevtic.

Enron = Ethics

2006-01-30T22:48:00.000-06:00

This weekend I watched the documentary "Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room" and needless to say, it made me rather grumpy. I remember what it was like in California with skyrocketing electricity prices and roling blackouts. Now to see what it possibly was like there, and the mentality of the people responsible for it, it is just disgusting to me. So much money was flying around and so little thought as to what was going on. Granted, the documentary was biased, but if even a little of it was true, it would still be disheartening to say the least.

Today the head honchos of the company (the smartest guys in the room) are starting their trial. Should be interesting. Comically, the website The Smoking Gun published the "Enron Code of Ethics." To see it click here.

There is no Spoon

2006-01-30T22:38:00.000-06:00

I am not a spoon. Honest. I'm really a fork. Or maybe a threek.

Holiday Nuts

2006-01-30T22:30:00.000-06:00

4 nuts during the holidays.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews #3 - Annie

2006-01-28T10:31:00.000-06:00

We recently came across the musical Annie on television. It was the scene where Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) sings the showstopper song called Little Girls. A movie review was written on Netflix through my account by Apricot, writing from a female perspective. We put her initials on the Netflix review but, apparently they didn't like the idea... here is how the review reads:

"--Brian Yaspan--

Over twenty years later since I was a little girl, Miss Hannigan's stellar performance of "Little Girls" still mezmerizes me! Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) is indeed "an ordinary woman with feelings" who exhibits a parade of personas and emotions during this one song -- from drunkard and loony to a working-class gal workin' hard for the weekend. Hardened but fragile, tough but vunerable -- this is Carol Burnett at her best until the Rooster ruins the party!"

It does sound a bit like the Rooster is quite the character! In fact, the Rooster is played by none other than a slim Tim Curry!

I've Taken Back My Inbox

2006-01-27T15:35:00.000-06:00

For as long as I've had email, I've used Eudora from Qualcomm. I just liked it so much better than Outlook or anything else that was out there. Now that I am at Vanderbilt, their preferred email client is called Mulberry. Besides having a cool logo (see right) it has absolutely nothing going for it and it is probably the most frustrating piece of software ever written. Basically, I was sick of it and decided to find out what else was out there. Fortunately, there is the Mozilla foundation who have the Thunderbird email client. First off, I have to say it has a much cooler logo than Mulberry (see left). Second, I just wanted to say (and this is the point of this post) that this email client is just great! The interface is intuitive, I can get RSS feeds, and it is very customizable. I have to give it to the open source software movement. So far, Firefox and Thunderbird are two of the best programs I've used in a while. You can get them here.

Snow! And Penguins! In Nashville!

2006-01-18T15:22:00.000-06:00

It finally really snowed here last night, and we had a penguin visit! So cute...

Candy Bars

2006-01-17T14:13:00.000-06:00

For a long time, if I wanted a candy bar, I would choose one of the ones with all the stuffings... nougat, caramel, nuts, tunnels of fudge, etc... My favorites here were 3 Musketeers and Twix. The Mars company triumvirate has always facinated me. You start with 3 Musketeers, just chocolate and nougat. Then when you add caramel, it becomes a Milky Way. Finally with the addition of some type of nut (peanuts or almonds), you have a Snickers. Offshoots of this include Twix and Mars Bar. I've never eaten a Mars bar so I don't know what differentiates them.

Recently though, I have been getting the simple chocolate bars and really enjoying them. I think it has to do with seeing the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, because I started doing this this summer. I just finished eating a Hershey's Special Dark, and found it quite good. It is still nothing compared to European chocolate bars, but it is still a nice, simple treat.

Anyway, this is just a message to remember to get out and enjoy a candy bar every once in a while. It's good and it will help brighten your day.

Belated New Year's Post

2006-01-12T19:26:00.000-06:00

This year for New Year's, my cousin Matt and his girlfriend Sarah came out here to visit. It was a great time. We actually planned ahead for New Year's eve and got tickets to see the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Del McCroury (sp?) Band play. We got all dressed up and went to the gig. However, there was noone there! It was 10 minutes before the gig was supposed to start, and the entire street was empty!

Getting closer to the place, we see a handtaped sign up on the door saying "The show has been cancelled, Sorry for the inconvenince."

After a good laugh, we went to another show in town which was average at best, but was in an old movie theater with a full bar. Not too shabby.

Also the venue refunded our money for the first show and as a consolation gave us 2 tickets to another show in February.

Happy New Year!

Southernisms Volume 2: Duct Tape on My Car

2005-12-26T17:13:00.000-06:00

I now feel like a complete Southerner. Yesterday, I unfortunately realized the hard way that my sunroof in my 1996 Geo Prizm was leaking. I have now joined the legions of Southerners that I have seen in Nashville that chose to fix a problem on their car with duct tape. I got the finest black duct tape Pep Boys had (to match the black paint on the car) and taped the sunroof shut. Hasn't leaked today, but then again, it hasn't rained. Also doesn't look that bad as the black matches the black of the car.

However, I'm looking forward to getting it fixed.

Not Much Mexican Cuisine in Memphis

2005-12-06T16:39:00.000-06:00

From the Associated Press:

In an unusual case of mistaken identity, a woman who thought a block of white cheese was cocaine is charged with trying to hire a hit man to rob and kill four men. The woman also was mistaken about the hit man. He turned out to be an undercover police officer.

Jessica Sandy Booth, 18, was arrested over the weekend and remains in jail with bond set at $1 million on four charges of attempted murder and four counts of soliciting a murder.

According to police, Booth was in the Memphis home of the four intended victims last week when she mistook a block of queso fresco cheese for cocaine — inspiring the idea to hire someone to break into the home, take the drugs, and kill the men.

An informant described the plot to police, who arranged a meeting between Booth and the undercover officer.

The undercover officer gave Booth some nonfunctioning handguns, bought ammunition for her because she was too young, and the two proceeded to the home under police surveillance.

Booth told the officer that any children inside the house old enough to testify would have to be killed, police said.

A search of the home with the permission of the occupants revealed no drugs — only the white, crumbly cheese common in Mexican cuisine.

"Four men were going to lose their lives over some cheese," said Lt. Jeff Clark, who heads Project Safe Neighborhoods.

"Hip Hop Yoda"

2005-12-06T16:01:00.000-06:00

On the DVD for Star Wars Ep 3, insert disc 1. Select the OPTIONS link. Then press:

"11" and enter (no quotes)
"3" and enter
"8" and enter

Funny stuff!

Heat Pump

2005-11-30T23:37:00.000-06:00

In my house I have a heat pump air conditioning/heating system. It's a pretty cool thing, it extracts heat from the outside air and transfers it inside. There is always heat in the air, even when it is about 30 F outside. Air stops having heat at absolute zero, so there is actually a lot of heat to extract at normal earthen temperatures.

Anyway, I was just looking up stuff about how they work online tonight and I thought I'd share it with you. My heat pump is made by Trane. Their motto is "You can't stop a Trane"

The Tennessee 3 at a bookstore

2005-11-26T16:34:00.000-06:00

One of the perks of living in Nashville is being able to see historic musicians in odd places. Such was the case last week, when we went to a booksigning at a local bookstore and Johnny Cash's backup band just set up in the store and played through some of their greatest songs.

Pretty cool.

However, it was not without its oddities... there was some sort of music exec-leech guy running the whole thing who was very annoying. He thought it was prudent to offer stuff for giveaway. Stuff such as shirts given to him by Johnny Cash that Johnny didn't want. (They were pretty ugly). Basically, something that should have been really cool was turned into a kind of circus event by a smarmy music exec dropping names to validate his position in the world.

Anyway, the music was good.

Filesharing

2005-11-21T10:51:00.000-06:00

http://www.thefactz.org/economics/phd/innovation/misc/p2p_summary.xml

This is a good article about the effects of filesharing on the music industry. Interesting that the bottom 3/4 of artists (based on sales) sell MORE when their songs are shared. The top 1/4 sell less.

Filesharing is a great grassroots way to get your stuff out there...

A Nice Poker Experience

2005-11-20T23:04:00.000-06:00

Ever wanted to stick it to someone who was acting like a turd? I finally was able to this weekend at a poker tournament at my graduate school Cancer Biology Retreat.

There was a poker tournament with a $5 buy-in that was a donation for Gilda's Club Nashville. We got a dealer, a 6th year grad student who was a bit over-zealous for the rules. Given that we had people at the table who had never played poker before, everyone felt that we needed a relaxed atmosphere. This guy would have none of that. Needless to say, it wasn't very fun. So I decided that at the first opportunity I would bet all of my chips, hoping to lose so I could get up and go do something else. Anything else.

The dealer was also playing, and his strategy was to fold on every hand, so he could keep all of his chips until most of the other players had lost all of theirs. However, after about 10 to 15 hands of folding, he decides to bet a huge stack of blue chips (the highest demonination). Even a grad student could see the guy was bluffing, so I called his bluff. I figured either way I would win.. if I win, he's out of the game cause he's betting all his chips, if I lose, I'm out of the game and I could do something else.

I bankrupted him and won.

He was a bit of a sore loser, and started yelling at me saying "you have no idea what you're doing! No one should bet that much on what you have!!" (I had ace high).

I reminded him that whatever I had, it was better than what he had and that he could go ahead and deal the next hand.

Felt good.

The guy proceeded to get wasted on Bud Lite (there was a keg of Newcastle Nut Brown Ale, but I guess he likes his Bud Lite) and hit on a girl who had some sort of fetish with wrestling, since that seemed to be her major topic of conversation. I heard him ask her "Name your 5 favorite Zeppelin songs... NOW!" What decade are we in? I felt like I was living in a bad 70s movie. Unfortunately, she answered.

I wonder if they hooked up. If they did, I bet it was in the back seat of his Camaro.

Why are all waffles Belgian?

2005-11-14T22:11:00.000-06:00

Why are all the cheap waffle makers Belgian style? I don't want a waffle with the big squares (picture on the right). I want a waffle that is round and has little squares, like an Eggo (picture on the left). I can get a Belgian waffle maker (big squares) for $9.99 just about anywhere. Where are the other waffle makers? Do you see any? No. They are all more expensive and harder to find. At least $30. Not like it's that expensive, but it just makes me wonder if the cost of downsizing the squares is really that much. Maybe they charge by the square. Logically then, Belgian waffles probably have 1/3 the number of squares as the round waffle maker.

Waffles. I think Homer Simpson eats his wrapped around a stick of butter with a side of liquid smoke. (http://www.recipezaar.com/8792)

Updat on the Free iPod from Charles Schwab

2005-11-11T15:29:00.000-06:00

Well, it looks like the free iPod shuffle post I had up a few weeks ago is legit! UPS tried in vain to deliver a package from "Charles Schwab" to my house last night. While I haven't gotten the package yet, at least they tried to send it.

In other news, I downloaded the Doom 3 demo the other day. So intense! I haven't played a game that intense sine Resident Evil:Code Veronica on the Dreamcast.

The Difference between Men's and Women's Bikes

2005-11-07T18:01:00.000-06:00

I have always wondered why the difference between men's and women's bikes. Why do women get a lower bar then men? Well, today I think I figured it out. It is so women can wear a skirt and bike at the same time. On a man's bike, with the higher bar between the seat and handlebars this would be hard as the skirt would get caught on it, but with a lower bar, it is possible for the skirt to flow freely.

That is my revelation for today.

Posthumously Baptize any Jews Lately?

2005-10-28T18:39:00.000-05:00

As you, my loyal 3 readers, know I am in Salt Lake City right now for the American Society of Human Genetics meeting. We had a few hours to look around the city today and I wandered around, eventually coming across Temple Square. I went on the tour, conducted by two very nice women from the Phillipines. In fact for some reason all the tour guides were female. I'm fairly sure this was not by chance, as all of the travelling missionary Mormons are male, something I never really thought of until today.

They presented a very nice picture of the Mormon faith, including a 10 minute movie of Jesus healing some Native Americans in 34 AD (when they believe Jesus visited the North American continent to set up a church). Jesus was very white looking. All-in-all the tour was nice. There was actually a very pretty room painted with planets and stars with a statue of Jesus in the middle. The art was very not accurate (apparently earth is right next to something resembling saturn), but it was cool to look at.

By the end all of this niceness got to me and I bacame very angry at their practice of posthumous baptisms of non-Mormons. I did not know who to ask about this as everyone I went up to greeted me with a smile that was kind of eerie. There are even articles in the local Salt Lake City papers of this practice, going as far to say that Jews had been baptized in the same group as Adolf Hitler. Apparently the Mormon church said they had stopped doing this, but the article said diferently. I am not sure who was right and I wish that I had found the right person to talk to about this.

If I am wrong about this, and someone is in the know, please post here and tell me. I am going to try my best to find out if this practice is real. If it is, it stands against everything my fellow Jews have fought for to get to where we are as a people today. While I am not a "Super Jew", I still very strongly believe that a person's faith and relationship with God is their own business and other humans should not be involved with it unless the person is willing (informed consent anyone?). If a person died a Jew, they obviously wanted to be a Jew and worship God as a Jew. Not have someone yank their spirituality away from them after passing on.

I highly doubt that the Mormons would like it if another faith did something involving their spirituality after they could say nothing about it.

Anyway, thanks for the ranting time. I guess that's what these blogs are for... ranting and writing stuff down so you have an account of it. It's a great idea.

Greetings from the Great Salt Lake

2005-10-26T04:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm here in Salt Lake City for he annual American Soceity of Human Genetics conference. It is a beautiful place, however I guess due to jet lag I can't really sleep right now.

The trip started off crappy cause I lost my CD wallet with a bunch of movies and music in it on the flight. If anyone finds a grey CD wallet with some Buffy and Angel DVDs they're mine!

SLC is nesteled in a valley with mountains all around. The Great Salt Lake is both gigantic and salty. I can tell its gigantic because from the plane, well, it was big. I can tell it's salty becuase there were deposits of salt all over the land on the sides of the freeway. Pretty cool.

Iget to stay in a Hilton. Pretty nice, and there's a cool clock that I can plug my cd player into, so I can hear my own music in the room. Nice touch Hilton. I was also pleasantly surprised there are no pictures of Paris Hilton anywhere in the establishment. Probably the only place on earth where you can avoid that person is in Hilton hotels. How ironic, and not Alanis Morrisette style ironic. Actual irony here at the Hilton hotels!

Anyway, I'm going to try to get back to sleep.

Cheerio-

Yaspan's Music Reviews - Coldplay (X&Y)

2005-10-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

This finally came in from the library (Nashville has a GREAT public library, you can check out almost any CD out there. They have about 14,000 or something like that, all requestable over the web). The little bits of Coldplay I've heard are not really my cup of tea, but Coldplay is getting so much press I figured I'd check it out. Plus every time I look at a music player in a promo shot (like an mp3 player) it's playing Coldplay for some reason (see pics). Or looking at them together, it might just be that Coldplay has some sort of deal with XM Satellite Radio. Anyway, I just wondered why they were always playing this band.

Anyway, on to the (very) short review. It's a very dreamy, relaxing sound they have going on X & Y. I haven't heard any other of their albums so I can't compare, but this one sounds like a cross between Vangelis (Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner movie scores) and U2. I read that the singer and Gwynneth named their kid Apple. If they had twins, would the other one be named Jack? Sauce? Pie? Orange? I'd vote for Rhubarb myself. That's a cool name. A friend of mine told me he wanted to name his kid Cilantro. Cilantro Pandey. That's a damn cool name.

Marios a plenty!

2005-10-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

Luckily for you I photoshopped out the naked Mario. Gotta keep the blog suitable for the youth.

Southernisms #1 - Noodling

2005-10-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

Ever stuck your hand in goo and then shoved it into a cave tryig to get a fish to bite it? Well, me neither. From the Wikipedia site on Noodling -

"To begin, a noodler goes underwater to depths ranging from only a few feet to up to twenty feet. Placing his hand inside a discovered catfish hole, a noodler uses his arm as bait to entice the fish. If all goes as planned, the catfish will swim forward and latch onto the fisherman's hand and arm."

Free iPod shuffle

2005-10-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

https://promo.schwabon.com/AD046/AD046Home.asp?campaign=ccip05&mp=ccip05g4x1

You can sign up for this credit card and make one purchase and you'll get a free iPod shuffle...

UFO Sightings Near You

2005-10-11T13:54:00.000-05:00

The power of burred vision and Google maps are now one! Check to see if there was a UFO sighting near you. Surprisingly, there was only one sighting last month in New Mexico...

http://www.ufomaps.com/

What is this?

2005-10-09T10:31:00.000-05:00

What is this? I got it in the package for an ebay auction. It is obviously patriotic, but what is the blue blob? The little blobs sticking out of the edges sort of look like states, but the one that might be Florida resembles an appendix more than anything else. Any and all suggestions as to just what the blue blob is would be greatly appreciated!

Some ones that come to mind:
1) Southeastern USA
2) Rorschach ink blot
3) Ketchup dripped on a flag and then photoshopped to be blue
4) Malformed body appendages

Yaspan's Movie Reviews - The Fly 2!

2005-10-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

The Fly 2! I watched this movie today with Eric Stoltz as the genetically afflicted insect-man-boy and Daphne Zuniga (from Spaceballs) as his love interest. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad until the trite ending. However it did have its share of cool bad-horror-movie staples... the woman alone in the lab with the thing, lots of screaming, an evil corporation, and some obligatory gross fly vomit scenes. Best was the guy who gets his fingers ripped off and then shows it to the camera, screaming. Pretty cool though. There were about 10 screenwriters, but one of them was Frank Darabont, who later went on to do The Shawshank Redemption.

Of course it's going to be compared to the 1986 remake of The Fly starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, and in terms of the prior movie, this one isn't too good. Not too good at all. But if you are hankering to watch a movie with fly vomit, you really don't have much of a choice now do you?

Now that I've figured out how to add images from the web...

2005-10-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

Here's a fun one...

So if we start breeding pirates, the temperatures will go down. Also, parrots will have something useful to do with their lives.

Well, I'm sick

2005-10-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

Yay, I'm sick. What a yukky feeling. However, I get to watch bad movies like Human Nature, about feral man-beasts and women with too much body hair that can sing (http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60022936&trkid=189530). It was a "Netflix Recommendation" and since I never tried one, I thought I might as well give it a try. They rhymed something with "follicles". That's all I'll really say.

There are other advantages to being sick. One is that if someone is mean to you, you can threaten to cough on them. I never do it, but it's fun in my head to play out the scenario.

Me: Stop being mean or I'll cough on you with my GERMS
Howard Hughes: AARRGGHH!!! Where's the Kleenex boxes?

Where does the time go?

2005-08-01T23:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I know where it goes.. I check email, check my yahoo! check cnn.com.... too much checking. I hereby vow to stop doing that and do some stuff that shall be deemed "important" by myself and a panel of 5 celebrities. (Celebrities to be named later)

Hot Hot Heat

2005-07-03T20:14:00.000-05:00

It's hot here. Bloody hot. How did it get this way? Are we THAT much closer to the sun now then a couple weeks ago? It had to be about 100 today. Anyway, it made for a hot day. I conquered the elements though by making iced cream. It had chocolate in it, and it was really really tasty.

I was also fortunate to watch some of the Live 8 concerts yesterday. I thought it was pretty sweet to watch full motion video and CD quality sound over the internet. I think it wil be remembered as the first big event to be broacast over the internet. Too bad it didn't work so well sometimes (lots of stalling and pauses.)

OK, nowit's time for dinner. Laters.

B

One more thing I am sick of

2005-06-26T23:31:00.000-05:00

If I have to look at one more ad to "Watch the Paris Hilton Commercial" I will go insane.

I am also sick of Sony. Their Sonic Stage software is the biggest hunk of crap that I have ever dealt with. Even the junk I wrote in Basic on my C64 worked better than this. Their tech support was useless and his only recommendation was to uninstall everything and then reinstall it so that their software would recognize their minidisc hardware. I finally got it to work though. Gheesh.

Procter & Gamble

2005-06-24T08:36:00.000-05:00

Procter & Gamble

This is Groda. The mascot of Kandoo wipes. He Kandoo it!

Feralicity

2005-06-19T00:48:00.000-05:00

Today we found a little kitten in our alley. He was a little orange cat and we gave him some food and water. He was a feral cat, so we named him Feralicity. He had a very distended belly, so we took him to the vet. The vet said he had a disease called FIA or something like that, and his belly was filled with fluid. The vet said the best thing to do would be to put him to sleep. Goodnight Feralicity.

Batman again

2005-06-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

Saw Batman tonight. What a good movie. Had a twist that I didn't see coming, and it made the Batman myth seem very real. Odd for a comic book movie, but anyway. It had a lot to do with fear and how to be in control of it. Scarecrow was a perfect villan for it. Fear is a powerful weapon and I think whoever controls the fear in any situation has a huge advantage.

Also of odd note, a friends house got broken into tonihght. It's a bit freaky because it's in our neighborhood and all. Nothing was stolen, just stuff moved around a bit. The bad guys usually have the fear, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Some good in the world, or infinite evil

2005-06-13T16:49:00.000-05:00

Well, Michael Jackson is innocent as of 4:20 pm CDT. This is important on several levels. On a societal note, it will be interesting to see what people think. The cynical and the "too cool to like Michael Jackson" will probably think that it was another example of the rich squashing the poor like a small, insignificant bug. The fans will think that justice has been done. I'm not sure yet, I think we'l have to see what happens in the future as the events play out, but I think at the very least we'll have an interesting album to listen to in a years time or so (if he gets back into the recording studio --- with Quincy Jones)

Another theory of mine is that Michael Jackson's career started going downhill as soon as he stopped working with Quincy Jones. Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.. all with QJ and in my opinion all great pop albums. Whatever the others were called, they weren't with QJ and they pretty much sucked.

I guess now that I've written this, I should explain the title...

Good - an innocent man doesn't have to go to jail (and be eaten alive in the process)
Evil - a guilty man with $$ bought his freedom as many other rich people in this country tend to do

Chicken Burrito Recipe

2005-06-12T14:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a good easy chicken burrito(e) recipe:

Get some boneless skinless breasts and cut up into bite sized pieces. The size of the pieces would probably depend on how big your bite size is. Then place the pieces of chicken in the pan, and cover with 1/2 salsa and 1/2 water. Boil away the water until you have chicken in a nice sauce. Voila! Chicken filling for burrito.

You can also make beans, sauteed onions and peppers, etc..

I will go eat this now

Well Im back

2005-06-12T14:14:00.000-05:00

Hi again, it's me. I totally forgot that I had ever done this! Anyway, I'll try to make it more of a habit. Passed my quals after some dismay and now I'm waiting to take my phase 2 exams. Not feeling so well today, so I think I'll sit at home and watch movies.

I guess I don'thave as much to say now as I thought I did. I will write more though

Entrez PubMed

2004-11-05T23:11:00.000-06:00

Entrez PubMed

My First Entry

2004-11-05T23:09:00.000-06:00

I'm a grad student. I'm at home Friday night procrastinating working on my quals. Never blogged before so figured I'd start.