Lunaya Pravda

I’m busier than a twelve-peckered dog at the moment, but I thought I’d post that my cacti are still alive.  No overwatering… yet.  And I have photographic evidence of their survival.  The succulent on the right has grown some three inches since I got it - I’m very proud.

Just you wait, I can kill any plant life unfortunate enough to be here.

I’ll also note I’m having a blast playing around with the old tripod my dad gave me and learning all the ins and outs of my Canon Rebel XSi EOS camera.  In the above photo, the only auto setting was the white balance - everything else, including the focus, was fully manual.  And I should add that I LOVE the manual focus option because you can zoom in to 10x magnification and get the focus JUST RIGHT before you take the picture.  I’m looking forward to playing around with the camera when I go to Montana, and more specifically Glacier National Park, in August.

And I have a bonus picture of the asian salad I made this evening:

Mmmmm!

Against all that is ingrained in me, I’m trying, once again, to keep a few cacti in the house.  Given my past history with cacti, I’m clinging desperately to the idea that these poor plants aren’t doomed.

I blame nature shows.  Here I am, watching some program about all things desert-y, and the narrator starts describing how a cactus can adapt to harsh, arid conditions.  That should make them ideal for me, I tell myself.  The plants I have now are survivors; they cling to life in harsh conditions!

And then, with all the optimism and hope of a newborn babe, I obtain some poor, unassuming cactus and bring it into my House of Horrors.  I try to make it comfortable, and therein lies the problem.  My brain just can’t grasp that a cactus prefers arid conditions.  Sure, I tell myself, the cactus can manage with very little water, but it doesn’t NEED to.  In my house, no plant will go without!  This will not be a Land of Harshness!  And I water it.  And water it.  And water it.  It’ll grow better if it’s not struggling from water deprivation, I say.  And I water it some more.

And a few days or weeks or months later, my poor little cactus will turn to mush from the inside out and ends up unceremoniously tossed in the yard waste bin.  Repeat.

I quit owning cacti for several years because of this, yet here I am, with not one but three succulents sharing a pot of sand together.  Their presence causes a daily struggle with myself to keep from watering them.

Is it really worth this torment?

The Snark Of The Week Award goes to Brad at WendyMcElroy.com:

A few months ago it became trendy to refer to nationalization of banks as “pre-privatization.” Now, from Mike “Mish” Shedlock, I learn that someone has declared the economy to be in the “pre-recovery” stage.

I suppose by this reasoning the current U.S. wars are “pre-victory,” statements from the Administration are “pre-truthful,” and of course the U.S. as a whole is in a state of “pre-freedom.”

Someone call me when we’re post-bullshit.

Related to the previous post, it just so happens that The Register-Guard publishes maps of police calls every day, and has been for some months now. So, just to check their article containing all the ridiculous police whining about a lack of time for traffic stops, I recorded the daily numbers of traffic stops and all calls shown since late September, 2008.

Turns out all this whining is bullshit. According to the Guard’s available data, not only are the police conducting MORE traffic stops (in addition to answering more calls in general), the percentage of all calls made up entirely of traffic stops is increasing.

I’d expect as much from the Eugene PD. But shame on the Guard for not actually running the numbers - numbers the Guard itself publishes.

Eugene, Oregon, police complain about a lack of time for revenue enhancement traffic enforcement.

“It’s totally frustrating,” said Barab, a five-year veteran of the police department’s patrol division.

“Traffic (enforcement) is what I love to do, but it seems like I don’t have many opportunities anymore,” she said. “Normally, as soon as we hit the streets we have calls stacked up waiting for us.

Personally, I’m glad the Eugene PD officers don’t have the time to spend an entire shift harassing drivers.  Now only if it lacked the time to taser protesters…

Also related… officers maybe afraid of “unfair scrutiny.”  Ha.

I’m off to the Garden State for three days.  Even if you don’t admit it, I know that deep down, you’re all jealous.

I love it.  Embued with new meaning today, I think.

Updated every Monday, Craig Damrauer offers up little mathematical gems such as:

pirate = thief + boat + bandana - leg

and

cleanliness = godliness -1

Brilliant.

A project meeting in Portland the week before last gave me occasion to visit Voodoo Doughnut, a place an acquaintance had mentioned in a discussion of the wonders of bacon.

Backing up… bacon is something of a hallowed meat in my circle of friends.  Bacon is to food what black is to fashion—we’re almost certain there is very little in the culinary world that couldn’t be complimented by the addition of bacon.  Perhaps some desserts are off limits, but even that’s subject to interpretation: I’ve recently picked up a cookbook that has several dessert recipes containing bacon.  So when I heard that Voodoo Doughnuts offers a bacon maple bar—and just happened to be within 10 blocks of the building where I was heading for my meeting—I felt compelled to investigate.

I’ll start off by saying I’m not typically a fan of maple flavor.  Syrup on pancakes or french toast is fine, but it’s not a staple of mine.  But bacon tipped the scales in favor of trying this particular maple confection.

To say it outright, this doughnut is nothing short of brilliant.  It offers just the right balance of the sweet maple and smokey bacon, with the added bonus of crunchy texture to contrast the relative softness of the maple bar itself.  My only suggestion is that it should be topped with a little more bacon.  If I remember correctly, mine had just two or three half-strips of bacon on it, insufficient for complete maple bar coverage.  I’d suggest slightly thicker bacon, too, but that might make storage problematic and biting into the bacon more difficult.  The very thin, very crispy bacon they use ensures that it breaks off in single bites, rather than having to tear at it lest the entire bacon strip come off in one bite.

I may find myself in Portland again in a month or so, and if I do, I’m swinging by to get a bacon maple bar and try another of their strangely enticing bakery offerings.

Been meaning to do this for awhile - the blog needed a new look.  I’m still tweaking things, so if you notice something amiss, please let me know.

Seemed like the header images were taking too long to load, so I decreased their image quality a bit this morning.  Hope that helps for you people who are still on dialup (dear god, DIALUP?) or stand the chance of getting FAPped by your service provider.