I must set things up so the Twitter feed appears here magically; there are limits to how many things I can post to...

Anyway: discussion today of film industry piracy on BBC Radio Scotland's The Film Cafe at 13:15. In which I shall attempt to be moderate, reasonable, and well-informed. Hah!

wg

Ended just now - 5pm to 11:30pm. What fun. Fortunately, most of it was taken up with going into town, going to a meeting, and traveling back; then I took my house guest and barged over to a friend's house and demanded tea and snacks. Got home just as the power came back on.

Annoying as it was, it's hard to complain given the much colder places people have been without power for much longer.

wg

It's 9:30 am on January 3, a Saturday morning when anyone might reasonably be expected to be asleep. And the doorbell rings.

I throw on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt and go and answer it. A middle-aged (say 60s) are standing outside. She is clutching a book that looks unmistakeably like a Bible. He is the one who's rung the bell.

"How are you today?" he asks. Not *too* cheerful or energetic, but firm.

"It's a bit early," I say.

"Is it?" he asks unpertiurbed. "Perhaps another time, then." I close and relock the door. My friends upstairs, who live here, seem to have slept through the whole thing.

What struck me about this couple who I assume were here to spread "the Good News", is how completely bland and righteous they were, and how set in their conviction that they were doing a good thing. No apology for waking people up on a holiday Saturday, which would be the normal human reaction. I think it's that smooth, undentable exterior that makes them seem like aliens - or robots. Very strange.

wg

The king of souffles, probably the king of all desserts.

I couldn't exactly find the recipe tonight - it originally came to a friend of mine on a little leaflet strung around the neck of the Grand Marnier bottle. I have it at home. But here's what I cobbled together from the recipes around the Net, many of which add lemon juice/peel, vanilla, or marmelade, thereby polluting the King of Desserts. Keep it simple. It needs no elaboration beyond a little whipped cream to melt over it.

Prepare a souffle dish by greasing it with butter and sprinkling with powdered sugar. Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt a half stick (4T = 2oz) of butter and blend with
1/4 cup flour to make a roux

Still over heat:
Add 1 1/3 cups of milk and blend until smooth and thick
Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar
and 1/8 t salt
Add, one at a time, stirring constantly, six egg yolks

The mixture should be thick and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of Grand Marnier

Beat six egg whites with 1/2t cream of tartar until they form soft peaks

Fold some of the whites into the milk/egg yolk mixture to lighten it, and then folk the whole thing into the egg whites.

Pour into souffle dish and bake for c. half an hour, until the sides above the dish look dry and the puffed top of the souffle is golden.

Remove and eat immediately.

Serves three or four.

wg

...and many more.

wg

Social media, schmocial schmdia. The Net used to be more social when you could actually talk interactively. IRC, Usenet, cix conferencing, the WELL - all media where people just talked to each other. The problem with blogs and comments is one person sets the agenda. The problem with Twitter is that it's real-time but it's not conversational: you can *have* conversations, but the interface discourages more than one or two backs and forths. The pr4oblem with Facebook is it's so damn clunky; so are Web boards. The problem with IM is it's one-on-one.

I miss going online to read and participate. Still say Usenet had the best interface of the lot.

wg

They say: List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from
home during 2008. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive
stays.

Well. This is like saying "Come get me, see how much energy I waste."

Scarborough
Shiremanstown, PA*
New Haven, CT
New York City*
San Francisco
Lafayette, CA
Sunnyvale, CA*
Burbank, CA
Tucson, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
San Diego, CA

Nowhere new.

wg

Courtesy of alobar, who had it from nebris. Clearly one must have this:

http://hogmalion.com/shop.cfm?Action=Det&ID=54

wg

Overheard last night, on the plane, spoken by an apparently adult male voice into his cellphone, discussing the annoucnement that Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) would like to take the NY Senate seat Hillary Rodham Clinton is vacating:

"Caroline Kennedy...she's Ted Kennedy's daughter, right?"

wg

12/15/08 US729 -> PHL
1/12/09 US 728 (arr +1) .> LHR

Online as usual, of course.

wg