A ferret rambles...

Star Trek Party

2009-08-30T18:40:14Z

By request for those who missed it on facebook, here are some pictures from the star trek party:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13829298@N00/tags/startrekparty/

One excerpt:

Also, here is the web site I set up for the party. Recipes and additional details available upon request.

Birthday Culture Week!

2009-08-15T16:34:27Z

In honor of turning 30, and having a ton of vacation time at work, I took a week to soak up art and culture in DC. The weekend before a friend came to visit, and we got some good Burmese and Ethiopian food, plus hit the natural history museum and botanic gardens.

Monday I saw the department of the interior museum (which was almost a metamuseum, as many exhibits were fascinatingly old and you could see the style shift over time), a prison art exhibition (artist stories were incredible, one used found canvas a machine was shipped in, and dyed it with beet scraps and tea bags, and waxed it with leftover floor wax), and the national gallery of art (plus indian buffet). Watched Metropolis for the first time.

Tuesday after doing some chores and discovering the apothecary museum was closed I saw the Torpedo Factory, which is 150 art studios in a former factory building. Incredible. Museum size and quality, but without editing from a curator. My favorite art all week was there, they were incredible 3D ceramic pods with detailed internal figures (by Robert Rosselle) that have to be seen in person to be appreciated (although you can get some idea with these links: 1 2 3 4). Also had an Alexandria Archaeology Museum in it. Got some deliciously greasy vegetarian Chinese food and hit the Arlington Arts Center, where I'd never been and really enjoyed.

Wednesday I saw the tiny Hillyer Art Space (had some cool stuff), the absolutely breathtaking Phillips collection (perhaps my new favorite art gallery in DC), got some Amsterdam Falafel and saw the National Cathedral. I was struck not only by the size and complexity, but by the strange motifs (lots of military elements, including a statue of a man with a rifle!, plus a stained glass window that has an actual moon rock in it). Finished some more chores, ate dinner, and went out to see a great open mic jazz session (they had a good house band which really helped).

Thursday Sarah took the day off and we went hiking at nearby Prince William Forest Park with Leeta, which was lovely. Had a picnic lunch of gazpacho and got some delicious salty middle eastern food later. Saw a fantastic play that night (Dead City by Rorschach Theatre).

Friday I went to the Corcoran (which was honestly disappointing, although it did have one statue of a nun which I loved, the nun was wearing a veil brilliantly carved from the same marble), got Korean lunch with Sarah and Jacob, saw an amazing (though tiny) gallery at Carroll Square, and headed to the dog park. Saw bluegrass that night.

Today after a lovely veggie sausage n' biscuit breakfast and dog training, have had a lovely and relaxing day, and am already drooling in anticipation of a 6-course vegan gourmet meal at Equinox (with wine pairings) tonight! Brunch tomorrow should be excellent as well.

I may be getting older, but I still know how to give my senses a good time ;)

New Conservation Data Resources!

2009-07-22T20:07:53Z

I just got a new web map up to view some of The Nature Conservancy's public conservation data. The goal is to have something useful to both conservation staff and interesting to the general public. Note that this is not a comprehensive map, we're still working on collecting info internationally and verifying what's OK to share with the public (in some places where we work with endangered species we can't show the location for fear of enabling poachers). If you want to learn more about the data or view it in other formats, you can do so at http://maps.tnc.org/

Feedback is much appreciated!

WORMS!

2009-05-08T02:33:05Z

I finally have started composting again, for the first time since I got my current condo and lost any convenient spot outdoors to stash food. Here it is pre-worms:

And with the happy little fokkers writhing around on top:

I am impatient for them to stop trying to escape, and start eating my garbage, dammit.

Real Life Superheroes

2009-03-02T16:22:39Z

So the release of Watchmen has me thinking about superheroes, which makes this a perfect time to link to the World Superhero Registry. These are actual people who actually (presumably) "fight crime" by patrolling the streets. There's a pretty interesting video about one such group here:

Note that many of the superheroes look like you'd expect, such as "polar man" or "red arrow" . But some are actually kind of cool-looking:

Why I love Lent

2009-02-26T15:26:05Z

Ironically, to Ethiopians, this is "fasting season" meaning they go vegan (with the possible exception of fish). For me, it is feasting season, with 12-dish veggie combos that cost $13 for 4 meals worth of food, and a huge assortment of vegan cakes and cookies at the Ethiopian bakery next door. Dama, how I love thee. They kept refilling the dishes we ate the most of, making it impossible to finish. We were totally stuffed by the time we got here and went next door to acquire vegan baked goods.

Inauguration

2009-01-25T15:56:14Z

So, inauguration was a pretty fantastic scene. I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep, just anxiously replaying in my head all the plans to get there and back and backups and etc. Finally left the house at 6:15am with Sarah and her parents, and met Colleen at the bus stop. We made it to the mall in about 45 minutes, and it looked like this:

We knew we wouldn't get close enough to actually see much in person, so just camped out at a prime spot near a jumbotron that was relatively close to the bus home. It was pretty cold, so we were all heavily layers and had two sets of toe warmers and all that. I was still feeling pretty lousy from bronchitis, so I mostly sat on a folding stool and huddled during the preliminary hours. Anyway, once the ceremony started, the energy was just incredible. Everyone was so emotional, and excited, and tense waiting for the swearing-in. Definitely a great time to be in DC. I took more video than pictures b/c it better captured the energy of the crowd, but I have a few pictures here for those interested:
http://flickr.com/photos/13829298@N00/tags/inauguration/

A movie of the swearing-in and the crowd's reaction is here:
http://flickr.com/photos/13829298@N00/3231451893/

Getting home took several hours and a lot of patience and bladder control, but the fact that we packed 2 million people into the mall without a single violent incident or arrest is miraculous, and hopefully a good omen of things to come (as is the fact I didn't get sicker from staying outside all day). Jon 1, Bronchitis 0.

christmas cards

2008-12-03T05:42:42Z

I just ordered some of these christmas cards. Does that make me a bad person?

Mo' travel

2008-11-03T14:47:40Z

I survived the big conference in Vancouver that I had spent about a month and a half working 90 hours a week to prepare for. It was mostly to get rich folks who donate money to The Nature Conservancy more aware and excited about our work so they'll give us more, perhaps it was successful in that. Not too exciting, though. But I had a team meeting in nearby salt spring island for a few days before and that was fun.

Also got to see the magnetic fields live recently, which was awesome. They played a great range of songs, and it was in a nice venue (good sound, seated, quiet crowd) which made it a lot of fun.

Sarah, Colleen and I carved Barack O'Lanterns:

Most recently, Sarah and I were in Loudon County for a 70-mile biking wine tour! We got off to a comically rocky start: the dog both vomited AND shat on the floor the morning we were leaving, my bike had a flat tire, when we got out to the first vineyard and tried to fill up Sarah's tires a bit more we ruined both valves and had to go back to town to a bike shop, on the way the road was blocked by a truck in a ditch so we had to take a long detour, our sushi fell out of its package onto a hayfield, etc. That was the first few hours.

But once we got to biking it was much better. The weather and scenery was beautiful, we found mostly decent roads, and with one impressive exception things weren't too hilly. We ended up going to 4 vineyards the first day and 4 more the second, and tasted around 68 wines altogether (buying 13 bottles altogether). The bed and breakfast we stayed at wasn't in the most convenient location, but they did a great job cooking for us (vegan buckwheat pancakes, melon with ginger granola, and creme brulee french toast were breakfasts, stir fry and a nice pasta were dinners with poached pears and roasted 20 oz apples for dessert). Scenery was a lot of this stuff:

A new dog!

2008-09-18T01:19:48Z

On saturday we got a new dog! She's a 55 pound super-sweet rottweiler mix from a rescue agency who likes every person and every dog. Her name is Leeta, named after the star trek character, not to be confused with Leda, who got sexed up by a swan. Anyway, click the link for what I think are

She likes to sit in my lap and press up against people, and generally be big and nice. We're taking her to obedience class soon to get some things straight, but all in all we're pretty happy to have her. She's about 2 years old, in good health, and while often mellow also always wants to play. We may have to take her to dog daycare some days to be able to get any rest!

Today is not a good day

2008-08-30T21:54:40Z

OK, to be fair, there were good times and an amazing amount of visits recently. In late July I went to Madison for a wedding and got to see some Mikes, a Molly, a moonrover, and other good people. Then I went straight from there San Diego for a GIS conference, got to stay with a good friend who I've known my entire life, plus met lots of colleagues and learned lots. Upon returning home Sarah S came for a week, during which time my dad also came for 3 days, and my mother and grandfather came for a week (leaving a few days after Sarah). So, I got to catch up with a lot of people, which was great though tiring.

But there have been other guests in my house, and less welcome ones at that. I've been fighting an invasion of mice into my ceiling (not the actual inside of my actual unit, fortunately) for about 9 months. At first it was just weird!, and I put some live traps in the ceiling (via HVAC filter panel access) and outside, and catching and releasing (far away) some adorable white-footed field mice. That went on for a while, I found a bunch of potential entry points and tried to seal them. Eventually sealed up the stoop in front of my unit where I know at least some were coming in. But a few weeks ago, the tiny cute field mice were replaced by house mice (which in retrospect may have actually been baby rats), and all of a sudden if I turned on the A/C the house reeked of mouse piss. I did another round of mouseproofing, including going into an unspeakably foul crawlspace a few times aimed with expanding foam and screen mesh. After this was unsuccessful, I finally gave in and allowed the exterminators to put some poison in my ceiling. I also found out that the bait boxes they have around the property to keep mice and rat populations down had not been serviced in months (they're supposed to be monthly). I felt really, really bad about it, but couldn't live with the stench and had spent several days of work trying to keep them out.

Then today (while replacing my dishwasher which had stopped working), I noticed a foul smell. At first I thought it was just the garbage, took it out, and struggled with fixing up a few abandoned decrepit bikes we found in the basement (one of which is actually a decent bike, and was fixable). But on returning the smell was still there, and I eventually figured out that it was an absolutely fucking enormous dead rat in my ceiling, right by my HVAC blower air intake. After getting that out (which was a challenge, it was so large it almost wouldn't fit through the gap I could reach it through), not only did the condo really reek, a pipe in the HVAC started pouring water out into my ceiling. Of course, being the long weekend no one is returning my calls who could fix it except a guy who says they can come next week sometime. I put some activated carbon up there, put a pan under the water, and am hoping for the best. I also reentered the crawlspace, found both the place where they chewed through my makeshift barrier and where they're likely entering the crawlspace from outside, and resealed both and applied peppermint oil liberally to the air (they apparently hate the smell).

Meanwhile I'm taking care of a spastic dog, wishing to get caught up on work where I'm rapidly getting swallowed in a wave of overdue things to take care of, can't use my closet b/c plumbers needed to fix a pipe via the closet ceiling recently and the drywall isn't repaired yet. Oh and to get to the dead rat had to fill the tiny portion of my tiny condo not already full of shit from the closet with the stuff underneath the HVAC to allow access.

The good news: I have an adequate supply of beer and liquor.

God, I love the British

2008-06-04T01:48:58Z

What other national newspaper can describe "a gold standard cock-up" in a story like it ain't no thing?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7434205.stm

A whirlwind of travel

2008-05-06T02:18:54Z

I am home! In mid April I went to Costa Rica for work (a week-long meeting on data management and information systems); amusingly it was cheaper to fly and meet there than other cities we looked at in the US (in part b/c we had 2 people coming from costa rica and ecuador)! The meeting went incredibly well, and I had 4 days to explore and have fun, which was pretty excellent. I went to La Selva research station, Monteverde, braulio carrillo national forest, La Paz waterfall gardens, maybe a couple others along the way. I saw ridiculous amounts of habitat types and wildlife: peccaries, agoutis, capuchin and howler monkeys, toucans, quetzals, lizards, some huge adorable weaselly thing, macaws, etc. etc. Didn't really explore San Jose too much, but the meeting room adjoined a garden courtyard and we had breeze and fresh fruit. Ah. Ate lots of tasty rice, beans, and plantains (casado). Pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/13829298@N00/tags/costarica/
http://flickr.com/groups/676269@N25/

Was home for less than a week before heading to Monterrey, Mexico for a few days for work again. The meeting was also extremely helpful, but it was all in Spanish which made things tough. Between my rusty middle-school Spanish and some help translating I got through, but have resolved to re-learn the language. Non-work related high points included a brief field trip to a nearby park (tropical dry forest, which I've seen very little of and contrasted quite a bit with DC and Costa Rica), and a trip to a restaurant called El Trigo Limpio (the clean wheat) which had vegetarian versions of chorizo, pork rinds, carne asada, tacos pastores, plus nopales and much more, Incredibly good food, and I never really get veggie versions of Mexican food like that.

Flew directly from Mexico to Vegas. Sarah was going for a conference so I tagged along and we took a few days to explore since we'd never been. It was fun to go to the Star Trek Experience, and Cirque du Soleil (Mystere), and see all the ridiculous hotels (pyramid-shaped Luxor was our favorite)/ Environmentally depressing as hell, and not so big on the gender equality, but fun for a couple days. I got a stomach virus which slowed me down a lot, but I'm still glad I went. Wouldn't go back, though. Won $20 at roulette in an extremely low-risk. low-payoff scheme I devised.

Back home, awaiting repair of some new water damage tomorrow (crawlspace next to my unit had a pipe burst, they didn't fix it until I crawled in myself after a couple weeks and confirmed that my bubbling paint was in fact due to the pipe. We'll see, hopefully they'll replace the damaged carpet and walls.

Going to the smoky mountains for a long weekend with Sarah in 2 weeks. Then home for a month, then Boulder, then who knows. For now, good to be in a bed at home.

fun with FM transmission

2008-03-06T02:10:16Z

FM transmitters suck. But they suck a lot less, and even approach excellence with These are the steps I took in modifying my iTrip to solder on a longer antenna (tightly coiled copper). It definitely helped a lot, and clamping additional antenna onto the car antenna as well made it work across a 5-hour trip across Virginia with no interruptions. Still not incredible, but performance is better than the $80 monster fm transmitter. Not too hard to do:
*pry it open
*if you're very careful you can pull the antenna out of the molded plastic channel without breaking it, but it's a VERY thin connection to the circuit board
*Make a hole in the itrip case over the antenna connection on the circuit board
*Coil copper around a straight paperclip, attach this antenna to the circuit board through the hole. I ended up having to use the coiled wire around some solid copper wire to get a really stable connection, otherwise the antenna moved too much at the base. So now most of the antenna is a spiral, but the base is more solid.
*Put heat shrink around the antenna
*To help ensure that the antenna doesn't break off the circuit board, I used epoxy to keep it from moving (both in the hole in the case, and to partly attach the antenna to the case.

Of course, this is both illegal and voids your warranty, but worth doing if you like to tinker. Tools required:
razor to open case
needlenose pliers to try to remove original antenna from channel
copper wire
paperclip
soldering iron (w solder and flux)
epoxy
heat shrink
hair dryer (for heat shrink)
patience
images

Pot Pi

2008-01-25T04:25:16Z

Thanks to Roy for the assist on the pi pan, and to Sarah for the pi cooking.

worst christmas ever

2007-12-31T15:46:03Z

I originally planned to write a longer update about Indonesia, but recent events have eclipsed the importance of that trip. On Thursday 12/20 our dog Chloe had to be hospitalized due to her kidney function sharply decreasing. She's had kidney problems for a while, but we were feeding her special foods, and Sarah was even giving her subcutaneous fluids a few times a week and she seemed totally happy and normal. But apparently a pharmacist gave her the wrong blood pressure medication (one that is bad for kidneys) and as a result she took a sharp turn for the worse and needed a 24-hour IV for a while. We picked her up on Saturday and she seemed off but mostly OK and still happy. But she was lethargic, and by Sunday she started bumping into things and was having trouble seeing. On Christmas eve when we woke up she was totally blind (apparently their retinas detach when blood pressure gets too high), so we took her to an emergency vet where she had to be hospitalized again while they tried to stabilize her and see if they could get her back to normal.

But on Christmas morning when we went in to see her she looked awful, and they said her sight might not ever return and her kidneys wouldn't recover so the way she was would be the best she'd ever be, and even keeping that would take a lot of invasive procedures. So we made the awful decision of putting her to sleep. Sarah's parents came to say goodbye to her, we spent some time with her, and then all stayed with her and tried to keep our voices happy so she'd be calm and feel safe as she got the injection. Anyway, given that thursday morning Chloe was her normal energetic joyful self, and by tuesday had to be euthanized has made this pretty hard to accept. She was only 8, and should have had a long life ahead, but I guess her bad genes overcame everything we tried to do. We're planning a memorial service soon to help us all say goodbye to her, but in the meantime it's really weird seeing all her things around the house but having her be gone. Hopefully she's in a better place now, but this has still been a rough holiday season.

Some pics:

She would lie upside down like this and wait for a ball to be rolled near her head, and knock it away with her nose. Adorable.

Some cool pics from Indonesia

2007-12-10T14:27:43Z

I'm in Indonesia! While I'm currently neck deep in the usual 14+ hour days involved with a meeting (Asia-Pacific science conference for the nature conservancy), beforehand I got out to the Derawan Islands of the eastern coast of Borneo for a couple of days (I met with our local field staff and got to talk to them about what they were doing to preserve the sites these pics are from) and even to help release baby turtles. Here are some of my favorite pics, lots more are available from:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/628647@N22/

baby turtle videos at:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jrfishe1/www/TurtleVideos.zip

The plan afterwards is to go to one of our field sites (Lore Lindu in central sulawesi) for a look at a different habitat. Some folks went there earlier and had a pretty rough time with getting stuck in waist-deep mud, chased by bees, leeches, etc., and our guide (the project manager) seems to want to play it all by ear. Adventures ahead!

But workwise my first presentation went really well, people are really excited about the work my group is doing and it's been great to make the connections. I'm also missing home and bone tired, but can't complain since this is both a cool opportunity to see a part of the world I would otherwise most likely not see, and to meet coworkers that are difficult to collaborate with when across the globe.

AARRGGH!!!

2007-12-02T02:04:24Z

OK, so I'm already freaking out trying to get ready for my trip to Indonesia tomorrow. I remain thoroughly unready, have been informed that I'm unable to get a boarding pass in advance for the 3 international legs of my trip so will likely be cramped in a shit seat, and to top it off, just now...

A friend of Sarah's brought over her dog, and in the 3 minutes that they were here this fucking dog managed to find my work laptop (which was on as I'm struggling to get everything together) has been soaked in urine. Yes, all in the keyboard and everything. I believe I have managed to get it mostly cleaned up and my keyboard is now drying. But if anything goes wrong with that machine, which is essential for this trip, I am losing my shit. Of all the places this dog (supposedly housebroken) could have fucking urinated, it chose my laptop? Sarah's dog has never pissed anywhere inside, or chewed on anything, which I suppose I should be really thankful for now! OK, back to the grindstone...

On Thanksgiving, and an upcoming trip

2007-11-27T17:32:55Z

I have a lot to be thankful for, as usual, including having had the fortune to enjoy 4 thanksgiving meals! First was the giant 150 person vegan potluck at Poplar Springs animal sanctuary; several friends of mine came with and we ate ourselves silly, tossed pumpkins to pigs to eat, played with sheep, goats, giant cows, donkeys, chickens, etc. The next day we went down to Bumpass, VA for a meal with Sarah's family (I halfheartedly messed up a tofurkey while grieving for Unturkey's absence). Thursday we skipped cooking and got Ethiopian for lunch with a few people, followed by vegan lemon rum cake. Then we got a bonus last-minute invite to a full-scale traditional Thanksgiving except all-vegan! Can't argue with that, we even got some games in here and there.

Sunday I go to Indonesia; I am in no way ready on any front (none of my 4 presentations are done, haven't bought required supplies, etc.) so am excited but nervous. After the 36 hour series of 4 flights (not including 13 hour time change), I hop over to the Derawan islands to check out the work the nature conservancy is doing there. I'll see presentations, help move turtle nests, snorkel and see coral, float in a lake full of stingless jellyfish, etc. After 3 days of that, the week of intense all day and night meetings starts for the Asia-pacific science conference in Balikpapan, Borneo. I'm there to present on some of the tools we've been building and talk to the local staff about their needs (due to timezone, language, and connectivity, they're often neglected). At the end I have a few days to go to Lore Lindu rainforest in Sulawesi, where we're working to fight illegal logging. I don't know the details of that trip, some local folks are throwing it together for me.

So don't be surprised if I'm MIA for just about all of December between this and Christmas festivities with families...

Clown-centric Sideshow

2007-11-02T04:16:36Z

Oh my god. My brain hurts so bad, I need to release the pain. Jacob and I just went to a sideshow at a local bar and museum of oddities, and I was expecting more wacky and less terrifying. The acts included:

Angel the fire clown: Fire eating, fire breathing, snapping a mousetrap on her tongue (!)

Keyboardist: also laid on bed of nails in various ways, and inexplicably not only walked on broken glass but rubbed it all over his face repeatedly and jumped up and down on it again and again (with microphone held up verifying that it was breaking further)

Jellyboy the clown (with the upside-down frown turned upside down): got out of straightjacket, put a power drill up his nostril several inches while on, did a bizarre skit, swallowed a few swords (including one with the hilt on fire), put a rubber tube up his nose through his mouth and had another performer drink wine through the tube going through his head, escaped a straightjacked, humped some squeaky rubber chickens, put a cinder block on his groin which was shattered with a sledgehammer while on him, put a syringe through his neck, did push-ups with a sword in his throat, and had an anvil on his groin hammered with a sledge.

Candy Mayhem: spider-themed burlesque (she had 6 extra arms on strings, silly string "webs", gave the clown a kiss that left him spitting lots of fake blood), assisted in several of the other acts (drilling the nose, hammering the groin)

Juggler: Juggled up to 6 balls, then a torch knife and apple at once, balanced a sledgehammer on his chin while juggling, juggled knives while standing on Baron von Geiger (see below) who was on a bed of nails, balanced a sword pointy tip-first on his tongue, fire juggling and breathing

Baron von geiger: Laid on bed of nails (including with sandwich of nails, with another person on top of him and a clown standing on top of that guy, also included bouncing and scraping his ass on the nails), put his hand between cinder block and anvil while cinder block was shattered with sledgehammer, put two fingers on an anvil and beat the crap out of them with a can of beans until it was completely dented and destroyed, bent a solid steel bar, stapled many things to self (flyer for second half of show, tips, etc.). The tips (at his request) were stapled to his forehead, cheeks, nipple, head, stomach, etc. by audience members (note: Jacob and I attempted to pay him NOT to staple himself, but instead he took the money and stapled it against our wishes). They tried to snap a rat trap on his hand but it broke so they just threw it as his chest really hard.

There was also a weird puppet aka "kissing monster" with "nipples upon nipples" and a scary voice.

I have no way to convey what kind of experience this was. Jacob and I kept wishing they would stop hurting themselves, but they generally seemed like they were doing fine and having fun. They all seemed like really nice and cool people when we talked to them, and all said that they loved doing sideshow. We're pretty sure that our veganism has been revoked, and we would not go again to such a show unless guaranteed it would be all fun with no agony. Nonetheless, this was not to be missed. Jacob says: "My life is enriched". Jon says: "I need to go vomit out some brain cells now, and then die a lot."

at last!

2007-10-09T19:49:30Z

Someone has paired randomized Nietzsche quotes with randomized family circus cartoons. Remarkable how many of the pairings work out really well!

A visit!

2007-10-08T23:03:23Z

Jacob is here, and as always good times are flying about higglety-piggelty. There was Streets of Rage duels until 3:30am while drinking lychee liquor, a legendary badminton battle on a set that turns out to have a net that's only chest high (after modified rules we were fine) with birdies that separate every few hits, and me winning $28 playing NES joust in the wee hours before being schooled in RC ProAm 2. I really don't play enough video games normally... Huzzah for corrections!

Gingerbread

2007-10-02T17:09:05Z

Here's the thing: gingerbread - when well done in cake form - is absolutely fucking delicious. You won't even believe it. Now that it's October, gingerbread is mandatory. Even time I make this stuff I am regretful that I don't make it more often. So, that being said:

Gingerbread w/ Blood Orange Sauce (from The Voluptuous Vegan)

Gingerbread:
1 cup plus 2 tsp whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ cup canola oil
1 cup maple syrup
½ cup molasses
1 cup plain soy milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Blood Orange Sauce:
1½ cups plus 2 Tbsp orange juice, preferably from blood oranges
1 2-inch piece of ginger, unpeeled and cut into three slices
2 Tbsp sucanat or natural sugar
1 heaping Tbsp arrowroot
1 tsp orange zest
2 Tbsp ginger juice (made by grating 2 inch peeled ginger, and squeezing)

Preheat over to 350F, and oil a 9X13" inch cake pan. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In another bowl, combine the other ingredients. Put them in a blender and mix until thoroughly combined/emulsified. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones, whisking together just until the liquid ingredients are absorbed. The batter will be very wet. Pour the batter into the pan, and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 45-55 minutes, until the cake is springy to the touch and the center is no longer liquid. While baking, start making the sauce by heating 1½ cups of the orange juice with sliced ginger and sugar. Dissolve the arrowroot and remaining 2 Tbsp orange juice into a slurry, and stir into the OJ when it starts boiling. Stir continuously, and turn off heat when bubbles start to appear. Stir in ginger juice and orange zest, and remove ginger slices. Serve the cake warm on a pool of the sauce.

Now that you can get blood oranges year-round feel free to use them, but normal oranges work too. Oh, and if ginger juice is too hard just put some shredded ginger or even ginger powder in. The key is: eat gingerbread. If you're still dubious, consider that this recipe has been approved by a German guy I know, and he's from a city famous for this shit.

Jen is here!

2007-09-15T15:27:28Z

As always, I am remiss in posting and can't be expected to remember all that has happened of interest since the last post. One entry of note is that I am now a year older (as of about a month ago), and got a pretty sweet trip up to Philly from Sarah for the birthday, including a super-fancy and incredible meal at Horizons, plus vegan cheesesteaks and a science museum.

Also, Sarah is living here for good now, although we have one more wave of moving her stuff in once she sells (or more likely rents) her place so we can grab all the furniture currently being used to make the place look nice. It's certainly been an adjustment for both of us but it's nice not having to commute 15 miles to see each other.

Work has gotten insane, which is perhaps one reason I am posting even less than usual. It's good to be busy, and we're working on exciting things which will have big effects, but it's a bit much at the moment.

Jen is here and visiting! Yesterday we went to the holocaust museum, which I hadn't been to in about 15 years, and was very moving (as you'd expect). We unwound with a paddleboat ride before heading back to Virginia for veggie chinese food with live jazz and a free sake tasting (and two of the worst deep space nine epsidodes ever conceived of, unfortunately). Today will involve a peace march, some more museums, more food and drink, etc., and tomorrow's highlight will be the obligatory Ethiopian meal at Dama, which is the best. All other Ethiopian places tremble before their flawless shiro, their take-no-prisoners wat, and their vegan baked goods.

Oh, and the Lorax now adorns my arm. The guy who did it was fantastic, both artistically and in explaining everything and all that. As some of you know, I decided to devote my life to the environment at age 5 upon reading the line "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better, it's not." I was completely sold. I wanted both the Lorax, who actively speaks and persuades on behalf of nature, as well as the pile of rocks that say "unless", which is more of a passive reminder that everyone who has a stake has to help out however they can. Anyway, I was never someone who wanted a tattoo for its own sake, but I've always found this story really inspirational and finally I wanted in.

Here's another picture of it (taken by Jen), with more heavenly approval in the background: Jon Fisher the angel.

the book
the movie

Travels

2007-06-22T02:06:14Z

So I have been remiss in posting here, and much has happened, and I am lazy. BUT. I have been to Urbana and while it was insanely frantic between the rehearsals, and trying to get work done, and seeing friends, it was wonderful catching up with people as I could. Also, Tim and Beth's wedding was really cool, and a great chance to see lots of people from all over the country.

Also, I have been to Bulgaria! The trip was incredible and fantastic, and I was in a blissful musical reverie for days afterward. Almost every day we would see someone else perform, and have a master class where someone would give us tips on how to play better, and check out some local culture and history. Really a well-planned trip. For those who like awesomeness, you can get a google map with all the places we went, and links to pictures and videos here. If you don't have google earth yet, you really ought to anyway, so download it and install before opening the previous link.

If you do not like awesomeness, you may be content with a few pics on flickr.

Also, Sarah is moving in! This is of course quite exciting, but I also miss Colleen already and there is much to do...

And work is all reorganizing and uncertain and terrifying. Should be more known (although perhaps not in a good way) in about a month.

You see, when there gets to be too much to write in completeness, I put things off until I'm writing a meaningless sentence about each. I'm a complete failure at keeping journals. I try though...