Monday: Zero to abandoning menu plans in one day

I have no idea who this is, so if you do know, leave a comment. I like tacos.

My excuse is that I didn't sleep well, and was really tired when it came time to go home, so I got tacos instead. I then fell asleep watching Magnum P.I. on the DVR, but it's ok, because as soon as I heard Detective Tanaka tell Magnum his hat was found at the scene of the crime, and that he'd been hired by the victim's brother and sister to find her, I knew that they'd set him up to take the fall for the crime they committed.  I was correct, so it didn't matter that I slept through 90% of the episode.

Clearly, I am living the best life possible.

• Somebody sent this to me while my tummy was grumbling for lunch.  I think I'm making this this weekend.  I'm tempted to use the WF black forest bacon, which is sweet and brown sugary already.
• I really want this ship to hit an iceberg and sink.  Just out of spite.
• So...wait, now. Paul Ryan claimed he was an objectivist, but then recanted (since, you know, they're fucking loons), and now the Atlas society (a bunch of objectivists) claims he is one of them?  So...they...want him, even if he doesn't want them?  Even more confusing, how did they let me read that story without giving them money?
• James Taranto is a journalist.  Apparently pretty shitty at it, since he doesn't seem to understand the meanings of words.  Also: a fucktard.
• Puppy growing up!
• Puppy!
• I actually have this issue of X-Men, and was always confused by the cover blurb.  Anyway: googly eyes.
• Squirrel!
• Wait...what...how? And the cart is ruined too? WTF?
• I remember going through passport control/immigration at Heathrow.  It was insanely complicated, with two lines for EU and other passports, but no signs telling you what to do, and nothing that clearly points out that if you're making a connection, you need to go to a different area.  So, none of this surprises me.

Let's make up stories

So here's the original image:

The way everyone is piled up near the registers, the looks on some of the faces, the general scene all make me think that this is clearly a supermarket during the cold war, just after everyone's heard on the radio that bombers were detected on radar over Canada.  Everyone rushes to the store to pick up supplies before the end.  Let's look closer:

First, let's note that tooth picks were so important that they needed to be clearly listed on the store directory.  

"Should I bag the bleach separately, Sir?"
"No, don't bother, we're going to mix it in with the cereal and feed it to the kids.  We figure it's better for them than to wait for the Commies to blast us all."

"No, Ma'am, I'm not one of those 'damned scientists who made those bombs.' I just wear what the boss tells me to."

The decadence of our capitalist plaid elephants is clearly what led to this pre-emptive attack.

asdfadsf

"Look! We stacked some, and then just piled the rest in a big bin.  Sure they're glass, but that's part of the fun."

"I wonder where Mommy went."

"No, see, we should have stocked up yesterday like I said.  Now there are lines and we're going to end up vaporized waiting to check out."
"What the fuck is wrong with Frank?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong, this whole thing is wrong! I told them that we should have bombed them after we got Hitler, but did they listen? No, and now we have these slobs who don't even button their top button or put on a tie to go to the damn store.  This food was brought here for you, the least you can do is show some God damned respect!  No wonder the Soviets are going to kill us, slackers are running this country now!"

"And then I said how nice it might be out where we live.  I've had such trouble getting tanned this summer, so maybe a bit of that radiation isn't so bad!"

"Is she a moron?"

"Wow, I think she's a moron. Doesn't she know we're all going to die?"

"I hope the kids don't start asking where Mommy is again."

Anyway, I thought it was funny, and that's all that counts.

Sunday: Random in seven parts

Part 1

I was watching this week's pokemon yesterday, when they started talking about Gothorita.  This is all I could think of:

Unlike most cartoon to realistic translations, these pikachu are not horrifying and terrible:

 One concern I have about this most recent season of pokemon is that Team Rocket is actually reasonably competent.  I know it gets old for them to always be screwing up and "blasting off again," but that's what made them lovable.  Plus, when real villains showed up, Jessie and James would always be helpful and work to save the day (or at least be comic relief).  I miss that dynamic.

Part 2:

I had a weird dream last night about doughnuts.  I remember that I had to quickly choose some, and ended up with five I think for something like $16.  I did apparently help someone else fill out their loyalty card, so they were going to get free coffee next time they went to the doughnut shop.

Also: the doughnut shop was in the middle of like a maze, or airport, or airport maze.  

Anyway, these have faces:

 And I think I've posted this before, but om nom doughnuts.  Now I really want some, but don't have any to eat.  I was going to get ice cream when I went out today, but totally forgot.  Damn.

Part 3:

Part 4:

I think the menu plan for this week is going to be:

• Sunday: I picked up not-very-well-made sushi for dinner. It's marginally ok.
• Monday: Tuna melt.  Turns out I have no clue how this works, so it's like to be a surprise.  If nothing else, I'll just ditch the "melt" strategy and eat the ahi steak I picked up on a salad or on just a regular sandwich.
• Tuesday: Mahi-mahi tacos.
• Wenesday: It's a biggish piece of fish.
• Thursday: Freezer leftovers.  I'm thinking chili, since I just noticed that I have like six bags of it in the freezer.  Each bag is like two meals, so I need to get cracking on it.
• Friday: More leftovers.

Part 5:

Just in case.

Part 6:

No clue where this is from, but whoa, bear.

Part 7:

• Wooper looks disappointed.
• I think we can agree that people are pretty much morons at this point, right?  Maybe it's just cops.  Still, this is an almost inconceivable level of stupidity.
• This review covers a lot of my concerns about the new season of Young Justice.
• Oh, hi there, bear!
• I got this book in the mail yesterday as part of a shipment from amazon (I had reached the free shipping threshold in my cart, so I clicked to buy.  I also apparently shipped it as a gift. To myself.  Oops.).  I don't know of a funnier book that I've ever read.  I'm only a few chapters in, but have already had to stop and put the book down to calm down and stop laughing.
• On the subject of books, do people still do bookplates now-a-days?  I'd feel bad about sticking them to my books, though.  

Crap, I forgot half that last post

After lunch, I went to get groceries at WF.  I was somewhat surprised by this in the elevator down:

Wait, what?

Yep.

I didn't want to get that close, since I really don't care about him much more than wondering, "why is somebody famous standing between the grapes and tomatoes?"  The answer was: to sell some sort of health additives.  Do people really need to buy giant tubs of glutamine?

• Wonderella is again wonderful.
• Basically, we'd all be making more and having better standards of living if we didn't have to support a parasitic rentier class.
• Also, it'd be nice if people understood false dichotomies.  Yes, you make jobs and pay some taxes.  The point is you're using the complexity of various rules to avoid paying more taxes, so you can hoard that money instead.  Alternatively: to support a parasitic rentier class.
• Squirrel!
• All I can think of is "douchebag." Can you call a prince a douchebag?  I guess I just did.  "Tyrant" would also work.
• Blah blah, parasitic rentier class, blah blah.
• Republicans.
• This is a cool idea, but still needs work.  I can get it to play mythtv recordings on my phone, but I don't have any sound for some reason.  It can't find anything else on the system, but I expect that will change in the future.

Putting the pictures at the bottom to allow them to reflect two of the links today.

Saturday: Too much delicious lunch

I've been having a craving for ramen for the past few weeks, and decided today that I was going to go out and get some.  My destination of choice was Tenkaippin Ramen.  I think it showed up in my RSS feed of Honolulu food stuff recently, so that probably helped.  It's somewhat interesting that I'd seen piles of commercials for this place before ever trying it.  The Ultimate Japan show is kind of interesting, with Hawaiian Dad, Japanese Wife, and Their Son travelling around Japan eating things and seeing other things.  I never realized it until visiting Tenkaippin, but they own the ramen place as well as hosting a travel show.

They also have the show on constantly in the restaurant.

 I chose Set C, with the kotteri ramen.  I don't know that there's any way to describe this perfectly.  It's a very thick and rich chicken broth, almost to the point of being a gravy.  It serves as a wonderful example of the definition of "umami."  Broth, noodles, bamboo shoots (which I don't usually like much, but when they've soaked up the kotteri broth they're wonderful), pork slice, and green onions.

 Set C comes with fried chicken.  It has a faint garlic flavor, and is crispier and more western style than a karaage would be.  It comes with a cabbage salad of some sort, which has magic dressing.  Again, I don't really like cabbage, but the magic dressing makes it tasty and enjoyable.

I also got a side of gyoza, because I love gyoza.  These were also good, but combined with everything else, probably made lunch a bit excessive.  I'm pretty sure I'm done with food for the day.

Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the gyoza.

Tenkaippin is wonderful, and I think I really need to put it in as a regular place.  The parking is a bit tricky (they share a small lot with a dozen other places including a Jamba Juice and Starbucks), but it seems to have decent turnover.  Then again, I was there at 3pm on a saturday, so I wasn't really in the main rush.

Saturday Cool Videos

Because where else are you going to see all the animals you usually only see in the zoo? Except the zoo. That doesn't count.

Ikea.

I like having the coolest president in the world.

I think I posted this before, but if I remember correctly, the embed stopped working.

That's really cool.

Beemo is great.

The Great Dictator (1940)

This has been sitting on the DVR for more than a year.  It's somewhat uneven, with the first 90% largely a decent slapstick parody of Hitler and Mussolini, topped off by what is probably one of the greatest movie speeches ever:

Definitely worth the sevenish minutes.

Totally worth the double post

Via.

Friday: I'm concerned my mandarin slices tried to kill me today

I was feeling ok until I had them for a snack, and that kind of made my stomach revolt a bit.  Given that I just bought them yesterday, that's kind of crappy.  I also didn't take any pictures today, nor do I have many links.  Let's see if I have saved images that would be fun.

Oh, of course I have random saved images. It's like my hobby.

Yeah, I've thought this pretty much every episode.  Starfleet has really shitty security protocols.

Political cartoons label everything (like the feather of arrogance. That old trope).  At least this one is still marginally relevant today. Unfortunately.

I can't imagine this is a real product. "But it's for kids!" So the kid sees a tube draining a bear of all its blood? WTF?

And because I had kind of horrible Silent Hill inspired nightmares last night:

Sure that doesn't make sense, but you really need a light bulb at that point.

The classic.

However, if I remember correctly, this house has like four floors, at least two secret passages, and randomly locked inner doors.  Who the hell would build such a thing?

• The opposite of a problem.
• Yeah, pretty much everything at the grocery store is owned by one of a dozen or so companies.
• While I'm on the topic, it'd be a shame to not mention ADM.  They make lots of things that other people sell.
• I'm thinking about stealing some of Julie's ideas here.  Fish tacos are usually good (although I just had them, right?). I'm also wondering if you can do tuna melts out of ahi.  I'm sure that's allowed, right?

Thursday: Turns out I need to read apartment notices closer

That would have resolved my question as to why I didn't have any water until 5pm today.  Turns out they were upgrading the water tanks on the roof.  I didn't know that's where the water tanks lived, but it makes sense.  Tl;dr: I worked from home today, mostly spent waiting for things to finish processing.

Let's have lots of pictures:

"Man, fuck gravity."

Have I posted this before? It's worth seeing again.

Done. 

Who designed that d-pad? +/- should be opposite, as should x/÷. Clockwise from top, I'd go with +/x/-/÷.

"Holy shit! Bubbles!"

• Does David Brooks not understand how anything actually works?
• I kind of want a poke-dollar.
• Bunny!
• This reminds me, I need to finish my insurance post that I was going to finish like a week ago. I have the simple case solved, and need to do the same for a case where there are freeloaders.  I think it solves exactly, which is nice as I don't have to make many assumptions.
• How to give your dog drugs.
• Why the hell would you ever want this?  I assume that there isn't a room below it, because that'd just be creepy.
• Selleck waterfall sandwich. Because internet.

Wednesday: polynomial fits

They are frustrating, especially when you can't get the answers to seem reasonable.  Let's post silly pictures instead of worrying about that right now.

Pika-bus!

Apparently this was on craigslist somewhere.

• "Mathematics [...] is [...] objective fact, black and white, right/wrong." This is why I don't like social scientists.  I'm pretty sure that if you asked, people around the world can classify numbers into an ordered list.  Just because they didn't immediately do that doesn't mean they don't understand the concept.
• I choose you, SleepyDog!
• That pizza/burger thing looks extra disgusting in real life.
• This is a good idea, and I think I'll have to put a QR code on my AAS poster this year.
• I guess there's an age where people just go batshit insane.
• Wait, does that say "Monte Cristo"?
• I fundamentally disagree that copyright should be allowed to exist for 70 years after the artist's death.

Tuesday: I have no cookies

And yet I still want to eat cookies. :(

Now I'll have to call my stapler a god-damned asshole each time I use it. (read right to left, and no, I have no clue where I got this.)

• I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who noticed the misunderstanding of statistics in this fark story.
• "MAD AS A PAIR OF BRIGHT PINK TRACTORS" may be my new favorite phrase.
• This is how all of those cartoon pasta shapes are made.
• Math joke.
• Puns.

Monday: Leftovers aren't bad when they're tasty leftovers

I didn't take any pictures, but it was basically the same as yesterday.  I need to get a new baguette tomorrow though.

Now I want cake.

Apparently all the links today are food related, too.

• I like cheese, but I have never put a quarter-inch slice of it on a sandwich before.
• Tacos!
• On a similar topic, I wonder if this is really how other countries think we eat.  I mean, I wasn't sure about the hotdog pizza, but I know I'm against the cheeseburger pizza.

Sunday: I guess I already did this as a recipe

But I have pictures now.  So, here's Pizza Casserole:

 Ingredients:

• Pile of mushrooms
• An onion
• Can of pizza sauce
• Cup of macaroni
• Poundish of ground beef (this time it was the Maui stuff)
• Pepperoni
• Mozzarella

 Dice onion and brown with the beef.

 Slice and add in the mushrooms (unless I missed an image and this doesn't have mushrooms in it yet.  Put the shrooms in anyway).

 Add the boiled macaroni to the pan and mix (this clearly has mushrooms already).

 Add pepperoni.

 Add sauce.

 Top with cheese.

 Bake for ~30 minutes at ~350.

 Slice into like 6ths or so, and scoop onto a plate.  It never comes out cleanly, so it's not even worth trying.

This is a simple 1970s style meal, but it's something I remember from my childhood, so it has that going for it.    It's tasty, and I'll be pairing it with salads for the leftovers for the rest of the week (because it's not really easy to claim that it's super healthy, although I did use the whole grain macaroni).

I also got this in the mail from my parents.  When they were visiting, I mentioned that I've been looking for a canning funnel for years.  I'm not planning on using it for canning, but filling freezer bags with tasty leftovers would certainly be easier with this than slopping them all over the bag with my ladle like I do now.  I've had trouble here even finding a kitchen store worker who even knew what I was talking about when I asked for one of these, so I'm not sure where they found it.

I assume the knives were added in, but I can't imagine what this image was originally supposed to indicate.

My Neighbor Finn and Jake (and Beemo).

I had trouble finding links again today.  I had to salvage number three from a decade ago.

• At what point do we just set Florida on fire and start over again?
• I liked that this reporter wrote the story using the tricks identified to beat computer essay scorers.
• This is the final point on the logistics stuff from this weekend.  A decade ago, this guy worked out that Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a reasonable equilibrium solution.