Lee.org

Just like that!

And you’ll stay alive. What Marah has to say about making lists and going over them.

Squeee!!

 http://tiltshiftmaker.com

Tiltshift photography is so super-nifty! It, of course, reminds me of so many old Japanese monster movies done with models and incorrect camera lenses. Tiltshiftmaker.com applies a filter to your images to make a nice tiltshift effect. To do the real thing you need to build yourself a tilt-shift camera.

Here is a Tiltshift Flickr group. (warning, some of the images are poorly done, some awsome).  And you have to check these out at  Laughing Squid, especially.

(click the thumbnails!)
My tiny balls

San Francisco 2008 Valentines Day Pillowfight

My Burning Man 2007 Camp

Bread is very simple.

Here is my new favorite bread recipe. I started with the Best Recipe recipe for “Rustic Bread” and simplified it because I’m lazy. It comes out terrific.

It takes less than 5 minutes work. Yes, really.

1. Put 6 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp salt, 3 tsp yeast  in big bowl
2. Mix
3. Add 2 3/4 c water or so. 2.5 – 3.0 cups is fine
4. Mix with one hand until it’s gloopy, about 2 minutes. No, don’t kneed it
5. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil for 2 hrs in a warm place
6. Flour a baking sheet
7. Grab 1/2 the dough and plop it on the pan
8. Roll it around a tiny bit so it looks more like a loaf
9. Grab the other half of the dough and do the same
10. Turn on the oven to 450
11. When the oven comes up to temperature (10-20 minutes) put the pre-bread in
12. Take out the finished bread 45 minutes later
13. Eat it!

Here is “Bread Making Level 2”. If you want a really nice thick crust do this:

1. Put a heavy, oven safe pan in the oven below the bread.  (cast iron is good)  
2. Just before you put the pre-bread into the oven, pour some boiling water in the pan

The steam will give the bread a thick “meaty” crust.

See my notes about the price of yeast

That recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Best Recipe” cookbook. It’s a rustic country bread recipe. I find it interesting that, first, one can distill their full-page recipe down to this, and second, this excellent recipe is so gosh darn simple.

Here are some comments on the recipe:

Yes, I just mix it until it’s goopy, like 3 minutes of stirring with one hand in a bowl. The dough will be very wet and it sticks to everything. There’s no point in getting any utensils all gooped up. And I didn’t “work” the dough at all.

There’s all kinds of yeast treatments, like letting it develop for days on end, sourdough starter and the like. I guess they do a little something but feh, just add yeast. And I’ve seen all kinds of yeast: instant, nearly instant, super instant, wet, slimy, goopy. I’ve never tasted or witnessed much of a difference. I used Fleishmann’s #2139 Instant Dry Yeast in a 1 lb vacuum sealed bag.

2 tickets ordered (15 seconds after sales went live)

Now… am I going?

This is totally random… I woke up a few weeks ago with memory of this random dream floating in my head. Continue reading ‘A Random Dream I Had’ »

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.