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Caught and colored is an exhibit of zoological illustrations from Colonial Victoria (in Australia). Oh, if only I could draw like that. Instead, I draw doodles on the bottom of papers about tagging and multimodal interactive systems, like the one in the header. Congratulations to the museum’s web development team for winning the inaugural McFarlane Prize.

Wow. Today began ugly, with a traffic altercation ending with me blowing a kiss to a cop (don’t ask). Then, walking to work, a huge street sign fell off a pole, nearly hitting me. Going up the escalator, the guy in front of me dropped his security badge, which promptly slid between the escalator’s steps and the side.

It made me wonder what the hell I was doing, going to work. Short of frogs raining or a plague of locusts, it was enough signs for me, pun intended. I was tracking through Max Design’s weekly reading list and came across Dave Pollard’s article on collaborative tools and their lack of adoption. The collaborative tools article was great, and Pollard is right. There is little adoption of them, despite their huge promise. This concerns me for two reasons: 1 selfish and 1 pragmatic. The selfish one: I am trying to develop a collaborative tool now, called revizit. The pragmatic: though corporations are probably the biggest beneficiaries, anything that improves human communication is desirable, especially if it improves human understanding or our ability to survive in harmony with our planet.

And on that note, it was with surprise that I found a ton of great environmental links on Pollard’s site, including his article “The Truth About Nature: How to Save the World.” At the same time I was reading this article, and pondering whether Christians or Moslems would ever be able to accept the idea that humans are not the preeminent form of life without relationship to nature, a great 30 minute PBS series entitled “design e2” was on TV. It talked about China, and how rapidly they are adopting environmental solutions (though they still have many issues, make no mistake about it). It ended on an interesting note… A nation believing in the Tao, of life in balance and backed by totalitarian will… does it have a chance to make a difference?

It makes me hopeful, because I think this land of rabid individualism, though fun, may not survive past its adolesence to mature and realize the need for such solutions. I am always hopeful this is not the case, but I live in Chicago, a city with fairly progressive environmental policies. Does the rest of the country have this will? Do our politicians? Maybe it’s time to get with Plato and the Republic, and use music to change it? Obviously, I’m beat, and tilting at windmills. G’night!

We had a little barbeque at our place on the 4th. Little, because our yard is the size of a postage stamp, so we didn’t invite the other three dozen people I would have loved to have had over. Anyhoo, a few of the folks have asked for the recipe for a couple dishes I prepared and others have asked for them in the past. Because I’m lazy, I am posting them here. All the measurements are approximations, because I like doing things in analog.
guacamole a la bayless
Most of this recipe comes from a Rick Bayless TV show I caught one day, the rest is trial and error and odds’n’ends.

Ingredients:

• A bunch of tomatillos. These are the green tomato looking things with the onion skin peel on them. Get about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of one of those 2mm thin plastic veggie bags you see in the supermarket.


• A head of garlic


• A jalapeno or two


• An ear of corn


• An onion


• A bunch of cilantro


• Some salt, kosher or otherwise


• A dash of pepper


• A few tomatoes


• 4-8 avacadoes


• A few limes

Equipment: an oven with broiler, a mixer, a pan, some storage containers, metal tongs, a towel. (Don’t forget your towel!)

1. Peel and wash the tomatillos, wash the veggies, peel the corn, pull several cloves of garlic off the head. I use a lot, but I like garlic. Don’t be afraid to use a lot, you’re going to roast it, and it takes out a lot of the umph.


2. Line a metal cake sheet with aluminum foil, thick enough that you could lift it up by itself. I typically double the sides and have a single layer on the bottom. I don’t know what size pan I use, but something about an inch deep that can fit under the broiler in your oven. Mine is probably 1.5” x 18” x 9” (approx.).


3. Set your oven on high broil, put all the tomatillos same side up in the pan. Get to work peelin’ that corn, etc. If you’ve already done that, pour yourself a drink and wait.


4. Put in the tomatillos for 5 minutes. If they’re black on top, pull ‘em out, flip ‘em over, stick ‘em in for 5 more.


5. At about the same time you’re setting the oven, put a pan on low heat. I use a big cast iron thing, with no oil in it. If you can’t hold your hand an inch or so over the pan it’s so hot, it’s time to throw in the corn, jalapeno, and garlic. Turn ‘em all every few minutes. If you really want to take the sting out of the garlic+jalapeno, use a cover. Otherwise, just turn ‘em.


6. Dice up the onion. Bayless rinses his to take out the tart, but he also doesn’t use the corn. I think the sweetness and starchiness of the corn makes it okay to do it this way. Also, I’m lazy.


7. Carefully put the tomatillos in the blender. I use tongs for this. Lift up your foil, and pour all that juice in there, too. It also makes it easy to clean up the pan. I told you I’m lazy!


8. Cut the stem off the jalapeno, toss it in there. Peel your garlic, toss it in there. Throw in some salt, less than a teaspoon should do, and some black pepper. Less is more, you can always salt to taste later.


9. Put the lid on the mixer, and put the towel over the lid. You do not want to be spattered by boiling salsa, believe me. Blend it up.


10. Stand the corn up in the pan. Holding 1 end with the towel (Make sure the towel is dry or you will burn yourself), cut the corn off the cob.


11. Put the corn and onion in the salsa. You’ve got salsa verde. At this point, you can freeze batches of it for later use, so you don’t have to do all this junk. You should get 2-3 batches from this recipe. I’d say do more, but I don’t know how you’d fit more pans under the broiler. You’re getting all the flavor from the blackened bits, so it’s pretty essential.


12. To serve. Okay, you’ve come this far. When you’re ready to guac, it’s ready steady go.


13. Chop up the tomatoes, if you want ‘em in there.


14. Cut the avocadoes. I said 4-8 above because each batch of salsa takes 3-4 avocadoes, giving you a 1-1 ratio. Suit yourself here. I slice the avocado symmetrically, then stab the seed, take it out, and go to town from there.


15. Dice some cilantro. I use roughly 1/3rd of a bunch


16. Use 1-2 limes. Use one, blend it up, if it needs more, do another one.


17. It’s time for that second drink!

bruschetta

Ingredients:

• 4-6 tomatoes, vine-ripened, Roma, or heirloom. Something good.


• Fresh basil, maybe some oregano


• Balsamic vinegar


• A head of garlic


• Salt (Kosher if possible) and pepper


• A stick of butter


• Bread. I like any kind of thick or wide Tuscan-style. You can use anything except Wonderbread, really, even wheat breads work.


• Asiago cheese (Grated), enough to cover one side of your bread slices.

The goal is to have some toasted, buttery bread with garlic, cheese, and tomatoes on top. Yum! I am going to be really general with the bread part, because you can do it however you like. The Joy of Cooking has a great starter recipe.

1. Dice your garlic, tomatoes and herbs. I like to do everything but the toast the day before.


2. Put the garlic in a dish with the butter, probably 3/4ths to 1 stick, depending on how much bread you have. Same goes for the garlic. For a big tuscan loaf, I use 1 stick of butter and 6 good sized cloves of garlic.


3. Put the salt in with the garlic and butter. Nuke it all. No microwave? Do all this over really low heat in a pot on the stove. You don’t want to cook the butter or the garlic, just melt it, so don’t leave it on too long. Mash the garlic into the salt, so the salt starts to pulverize the garlic. Use butter not olive oil; butter has 20% more water.


4. Put the tomatoes, basil, oregano, a bit of salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons or more of the balsamic vinegar in a bowl and mix it up. If it’s winter or you have kind of nasty, tasteless tomatoes, make sure you’re doing this a day early. The vinegar will break down the tomatoes and everything will kind of blend together.


5. If you’re using an oven: set it to 350, butter your bread, getting lots of chunks of garlic on there, sprinkle on the cheese (if grated) or put some thin slices of cheese on there. Leave ‘em for 10 minutes. When they’re toasted, pull ‘em out.


6. If you’re using a grill (and tongs): Throw the bread on the grill at about 300-400 degrees, with the heat rising. Turn the bread after 1-2 minutes. I take the bread off the grill, dip the just toasted side in the butter (not like French toast, but a quick dip), throw it back on the grill for another 1-2 minutes (watch out for flameouts from the butter. You do not want cinders, but toast). Spoon on the garlic and sprinkle some cheese on it.


7. Spoon a bunch of tomatoes over the whole thing, and you’re done.

That concludes the Casa Kunesh Cooking Hour, probably the longest non-Internet post I’ve had in awhile. Tomorrow, it’s all business: Peter’s Ruby Accessibility Analysis Kit. And if that doesn’t put the non-netizens to sleep, nothing will. Excelsior!

My friend Ben went to undergrad with Clint Rutkas, who has created a USB-controlled disco floor. John Travolta, meet Bill Gates. It’s worth a look at the MSDN article just to see the effort that went into it, as well as the cool images it can generate. Thanks for the link, Benbot!

I’m on an afternoon train home, coming up on my spot. It’s one stop from the end of the line. It was not yet 4pm, and we were far from the loop. A guy giving off pervert weirdo vibes sitting kiddy corner from me takes my picture with a manual camera.

He says something about my picture being in something. I’m reading a book, I don’t quite get what he says. I’m in a blog? A weekly? The Chicago RedEye. I’ll be on the cover of the Chicago RedEye tomorrow.

The story: seat hogs, people who sit in the outside seat and don’t let people in. It’d be a great story, if I wasn’t sitting sideways, having just let out the person next to me. It would be an even better story if there weren’t only 6-8 people in the train car, all seated. I really wish I’d been thinking enough to snap a pic with my camera, to post here. This was our conversation.

I said, “Do you think I have denied anyone a seat by sitting where I am?”

Either now, or in a bit he says something to the effect that I am the kind of person that would do this, deliberately jabbing at me. He told me to look for myself in the paper, etc.

I asked him if he wanted to print my name with it, if that was the case. He said everyone would know me, anyway, and I should read the paper myself. I told him I did not read the RedEye, that it was a rag. He told me again that I was the type of person who would do this, or something to that effect. I didn’t need it.

I said, “You have no right to judge me.”

He said, “I just did.”

“Wrongly.”

And I stepped off the train. As I said, did not need it. Buddy, who ever you are, I don’t use these words lightly. Stay the fuck away from me, you creepy bastard.