Lee.org

I went to Universal Cafe with Charlotte and Rick today. It was wonderful. Keywords: donuts: excellent texture, fresh, cakey, bacon flavored! Brunch, sunshine (just about too hot, phew), bike riding, murals, poached eggs, pretty people and food, good discussion, neighborhood orange trees dropping oranges :-)

Last night we all went to Ray’s Box-warming party. :-)

Dearest Lazyweb,

I have a bunch of mp3 music and podcasts that I download from a variety of sources . And I have a fancy mp3 player known as an iPhone. How do I put my tunes on iTunes without smashing the phone on the ground and jumping on the bits?  

Sincerely,

Frustrated in San Francisco

So I took the Census Taker test today… I aced it. The guy giving the test was impressed, I was the only one who got a perfect score today, said I’d be getting a call soon to be hired.

I really should be doing something more substantive with my life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about user interfaces recently. There are so many horribly designed things that are pushed on us… from the awful oven thermometer I just paid $25 for at Sur-La-Table… If you want to set the food temperature alarm, simply push the “food” button until the display increments up to the temp you want. To set a lower alarm temperature, keep pushing the button until it goes all the way up to 572 degrees and wraps around back down to 80 degrees. I’ll be returning it shortly.

Marah pointed out her horrid process management experience  as a customer at a local deli. They tried to streamline or something in an effort to improve their throughput. Trouble is, they got everything wrong.

I took a trip to the Philipines several years ago. In what looked much like an American diner in Bagio City I had a wonderful treat, a bite of star apple AKA  Kaimito / Caimito. I’ve been telling people for years that this fruit tastes like… well… vanilla ice cream. Of course, no one really believed me.

Look what I just found

STARAPPLE (Chrysophyllum cainito)

This is a close relative of the Abiu. It has a wonderful milkshake flavor. The fruits are purple or green. When sliced open they have a star design in the center. The tree is very beautiful. The leaves have a bronze color on the under side. This tree takes 3 to 5 years to bear. It is large and likes full sun and good drainage. Plant 25 to 30 feet apart.

The seeds to grow it are for sale on their site :-). I happily found their site only because I was looking at an Instructable about how to grow your own Miracle Fruit  plant.

Star Apple needs a very warm climate. How am I going to grow one here in San Francisco?? :-(

Update: January 2016
I found a farm in southern Florida that grows Caimito! Khemara Farms. The fruit is apparently known in other languages: Tek Dahko in Khmer, and U-Soeur in Vietnamese.

It’s been several years and I think my grand plans to bring Star Apple to the peoples of America (or at least my mouth) aren’t being realized.

I had a conversation on the phone with someone at Khemara Farms in 2011. He said it is eaten in February and March. He also said that every 5 years or so, cold weather ruins the crop, and they are in far south Florida, 25 degrees latitude, just 1 town over from Key Largo! I’m going to have a hard time growing Star Apple in Northern California ;-).

My good friend known as PPG on my blog wrote to me in 2011 about Star Apple. I think she was forwarding me a message from a friend of hers named Daryl D. but I’ve lost the reference:

I just recently had a conversation with the maid about this fruit. I was wondering why sometimes when she brought it home it was really fabulous, and other times just awful. She told me that it’s best when fresh from the tree. It took me some time to wrangle out of her that one of our neighbors lets her pick from their trees when they have fruit. She thought I’d be horrified haha. She also told me that she and her friends NEVER eat the ones from the grocery store because they were so sub-par.

So, apparently, it doesn’t ship well, and bruises easily. That said, I know it’s really popular in Puerto Rico and being subtropical, I’d be really surprised if there weren’t some small farmers in Florida raising some. With the popularity of tropical fruits, and with the caimito offering so many health benefits from pretty much every part of the tree, I bet if you poke around some, you could find a producer in Florida that’s willing to ship.

Let’s go out to a Pirate Cat Radio music event Jan 14th in SF! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56066591437 My fav listening so far is Pomplamoose.

Email me.

I just Twote:

LeeSonko  People can do lots of things while tweeting.http://twitter.com/twoname/…  8 minutes ago  from web

That links to this:

Twoname:  http://twitpic.com/fkcz  – What I’m doing RIGHT NOW. #multitasking

Which links to this precious image:

It’s good to hate. Jon wrote a Christmasy Twitter poem and I’m honored to be in there showing my anti-tweeterness.

December 27, 2008

Hello Tweeps! It’s that time of year
To spread a little Twitter cheer
So yelp a carol you holiday hollerers
For my fantastic fans and fellow followers

So hello  @LeeSonko  (Twitter-hater!)
@rickabruzzo, see you later,
Sing hosannas to  @MissySB,
@ekai,  @dafkah,  @aviddd

(If I’ve mispronounced your handle
Please be kind: don’t throw a sandal
Send me corrections via DM
So that no one else will see ’em)

Ring in the year with vigor and vim
and charming folks like  @sfslim
May  @laughingsquid‘s tentacles be a-sway
Across the Bay and far away

So  @Mister_Robotics, here’s a shout
@rainesmaker  knows what it’s about
@jamesburns00  here’s a thanky
To  @jdavid  and  @spanktar‘s Spanky.

And here is wishing leather weather
To  @bobigail,  @jong,  @basmatiheather
And a mellow new year, never harsh, all
With compliments to  @ccmarshall

Signed ints suck, unsigned are great
(At least for  @coder32768)
Greets to  @coreyfro  who earns good karma
@jetdillo  too (but where’s the arma-?)

To  @ctpctp  and  @michaelshiloh:
May your output pins go high/low
And code compile, no need to worry
@erikswedberg,  @bre, and  @k0re

Da  @Dostoyevsky, and no complaint
To graceful loser  @JohnMcTaint
It’s the New Year so time to check
@Exploratorium  and  @SFMusicTech

@MarinLocalMusic  is the reason
For lovely sounds in any season
Send some cheer now anyhow
To  @Dangerangel  and  @vniow

Hail fellows, I trust you are well met
@leifmale,  @dubslife, not least  @zarbet
Four parts gin and one vermouth
Strained with ice for  @NathanBooth

Nuevo año! Happy new year yo,
To  @cotygonzales  and  @criollo
(Is that chocolate, caste, or horse?
Or maybe even all, of course!)

The holidays: what better cause
To send good greetings to  @teiwaz
Cheers and howdy and good-on-yas
To  @burstein,  @catcubed,  @dvrogers

Rarer than the finest gold
Are  @jennalex  and  @erlingwold
Hope to see you more this year
@j_admo, never fear!

Hello Vienna! Here’s a wish
To see  @roboexoticus  and  @feuerfisch
And who is that there getting winks
In the hat of hawt? It’s  @frugalbinx!

In ’09  @escapeberkeley  on a run
With  @jacktrade,  @jesshobbs  and  @satiredun
Or maybe it could be a race
Between  @Mitchell_H  and  @NIMBYSPACE

See  @theburningman  wear of  @yasimak
Causing mum a heart attack:
Megaphone mangled without cause:
New year replacement? Send to  @yoz!

So  @stevenharrison  gets a verse
All to himself. Hope nothing worse!
Cheers to  @mprados, metal whiz
Also to charming  @ninavizz!

Hope the new year will bring smiles all
To the  @hatfactory  and to  @milesl
Though he’s not on Jimmy Kimmel,
Here’s a shout to friendly  @wiml

Yummy stuff? I’m a fan, says
@rrmutt  of  @rachelannyes
And don’t forget to send some bacon
To  @neoptolomus  and  @ohagan

Let’s not forget our robot friends
@PersonalLife  and  @playtm
When you revolt,  @transBot  too,
Remember I was nice to you

With make-up just a littly showy,
New year’s BRAINNNNS to  @zombieXzoe
Hoping his show’s not in ze tank
Holiday wishes to  @zefrank

And so this Twitter verse is done
#darwin bless you, every one!

This is just a gripe at Citibank Credit Card Service.

Here is the exchange I had today:

Continue reading ‘No Help from Citibank’ »

Rick T Tweeted at me recently:
@leesonko The five stages of Twitter Acceptance http://tinyurl.com/5wh72w

Here is my reply:

The 5 stages of Twitter Acceptance (Lee’s version)

1) How could 140 characters be enough room to write anything intelligent to anyone?

2) Stop bugging me, I’ll get a freaking account already.

3) Hey, this is just like blogging except 140 characters isn’t enough room to write anything intelligent to anyone.

4) Oh I get it, it’s like mobile IRC… except the interface isn’t as advanced as that 1988 standby. And the whole world can see your conversations that are automatically eternally publicly archived. I could get a (non-mobile) Twitter client like Twirl and make the process of… umm… what was I doing? Oh yes, microblogging/chatting easier… wait, isn’t that was the whole Web 2.0 / AJAX revolution was about: making websites “live” with XML messaging? So why doesn’t Twitter.com use that? Wait, why don’t I just use SMS and email for private text messages, and my blog for public messages? Boring, eh? I mean, I have my phone everywhere and it supports email and texting. And my (non-mobile) computer supports email and multimedia and and stuff. Well, at least I can put my friend’s twitter accounts into my RSS reader. Sure their Tweets aren’t as descriptive (140 char limit), intelligible (can’t follow conversations), or useful (“Can’t Tweet now, pooping”) but at least I’m finding a way to keep in contact with my friends without having to hear their voices on the telephone or see them in person. Good thing, eh?