3-6.

Last Saturday eve in celebration[?], the Mrs took me out for the finest steak dinner I think I've ever had.

Yes, we were provided bibs.

From 2008-10-18

The steak was served on still sizzling plates, so there was actually some spatter.

Restaurant HYPO, across town. As you can see, the placemat includes MEAT and BEER, meaning all is well with the world.

From 2008-10-18

Ham carpaccio appetizer. [The only reason I even know the word carpaccio is because of too many obsessional Iron Chef America viewings.]

From 2008-10-18

Corn soup. [I just like this pic.]

From 2008-10-18

Sandy sacrificed, as HYPO served neither chicken nor fish, effectively quashing her dining options. So she enjoyed soup, double portions of salad, and thanks to the stop at the supermarket on the way home, karaage.

From 2008-10-18

Steak served still sizzling.

From 2008-10-18

Here you can see our food swap, Sandy having gotten my portions of salad, and me doubling up on beef. [You know, I still don't know how to wrap my mind around two years of vegetarianism somehow transitioning to double portions of steak. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch.]

From 2008-10-18

In this pic, near, you can see the remains of Sandy's sirloin set, which was delicious. However, closer to me in the pic, is the wagyu beef remaining from my set, which was, hands down, the best piece of steak I've ever tasted. You don't bite into wagyu, your teeth come together as the meat melts into separate sections. Well, not really. But damn close.

From 2008-10-18

Wagyu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Wagyu (和牛, wagyū?) refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. The meat from wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and thus a high market value. Several areas in Japan are famous for the quality of their Wagyu cattle, and ship beef bearing their areas' names. Some examples are Kobe, Mishima and Ohmi beef."

A friend actually works as a waitress at the restaurant, and she hooked us up with this tasty bit of chocolatey goodness.

From 2008-10-18

A good night.

Liars. And incompetents to boot.

Bruce Schneier spanks TSA head Kip Hawley.

Schneier on Security: Kip Hawley Responds to My Airport Security Antics:

"It is simply impossible that the TSA catches dozens of terrorists every week. If it were true, the administration would be trumpeting this all over the press -- it would be an amazing success story in their war on terrorism. But note that Hawley doesn't exactly say that; he calls them 'terrorist-related individuals.' Which means exactly what? People so dangerous they can't be allowed to fly for any reason, yet so innocent they can't be arrested -- even under the provisions of the Patriot Act.

And if Secretary Chertoff is telling the truth when he says that there are only 2,500 people on the no-fly list and fewer than 16,000 people on the selectee list -- they're the ones that get extra screening -- and that most of them live outside the U.S., then it is just plain impossible that the TSA identifies 'dozens' of these people every week. The math just doesn't make sense."

Quote of the Day: "...don't mistake argument for oppression, because that's punk shit."

Via Kung Fu Monkey: Hollywood Conservatives: The Thoughtful Post

"The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time | Cracked.com"

These were pretty brilliant.

The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time | Cracked.com:

"Greatest Display of Badassedry:
Andrew Jackson was the first president on whom an assassination attempt was made. A man named Richard Lawrence approached Jackson with two pistols both of which, for some reason, misfired. With the possibility of an assassination taken off the table, Jackson proceeded to beat Lawrence near death with his cane until Jackson's aides pulled him off the assassin.

The guns were inspected afterwards and it was discovered that they were in perfect working order, leading some historians to believe that it was an odds-defying 'miracle' that Jackson survived, while we're pretty sure that the bullets, like everyone else, were simply scared of Jackson.

--

Teddy Roosevelt was a badass of the people. Roosevelt received letters from army cavalrymen complaining about having to ride 25 miles a day for training and, in response, Teddy rode horseback for 100 miles, from sunrise to sunset, at 51 years old, effectively rescinding anyone's right to complain about anything, ever again.

Did we mention he had asthma growing up? He did, and after he beat asthma to death, he ate asthma's raw flesh and ran 100 straight miles off the energy it gave him.

Greatest Display of Badassedry:
While campaigning for a third term, Roosevelt was shot by a madman and, instead of treating the wound, delivered his campaign speech with the bleeding, undressed bullet hole in his chest...

Most Badass Quote:
This quote actually comes from a fellow politician at the time of Roosevelt's death: "Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight." We have no witty commentary for that. That is just straight up badass. "

"Wassup 2008" - with the original players.

Wassup 2008 - Boing Boing:

"Wassup 2008: A brilliant parody short... Update: apparently this is the original cast, reunited. Wow, cool."

"A Poem For The Youth Voter."

illdoc brings wisdom. Smoothly.

American culture is so hypocritically screwed.

Well, a porno it’s not -- Newsday.com:

"'I don't have kids,' said Smith's longtime producer, Scott Mosier, 'but I have gone to my friends who have kids and asked a bunch of them about the 'porno'-on-a-poster thing, and 99 percent said, 'What about all the posters that say 'death,' 'slaughter' and 'murder' and have images that are a lot more frightening?'

'They also say, 'Of all the stuff I have to deal with, that is not one of the big problems.''"

The wisdom of Joss Whedon.

Via 28/08/2008 on Warren Ellis' Flickr

They make it easy to hate them for their ignorance.

If only they didn't delight in it so much.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Cure to Autism Involves Mocking a Route to the Cure:

"Sarah Palin... in her big “policy speech” yesterday:

Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.

Take it away, PZ Myers:

...You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.

Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.

This is the type of ignorant Christian Nationalism, where hillbilly gut instincts and religious edicts trump knowledge and reason, that corrupt Republicanism has devolved into. This is what is meant to be “conservative” these days. It has nothing to do with the conservatism of years past, and everything to do with nativism (notice how Paris, France was included in the mocking- those god damned furriners!), reflexive hatred of the other, suspicion and derision towards those who know something, and cronyism. This woman embodies everything that is wrong with the current Republican party; there is a reason the know-nothings embrace her..."

"Broken Koans and other Zen debris."

Well done...

Broken Koans and other Zen debris:

"Three people were walking on the road, and they saw a man standing on a hill.

'I wonder what that man is doing,' one of them said, 'perhaps he is waiting for someone.'

'I'll bet he's looking for a cow that has strayed,' said another.

'Or perhaps he is just enjoying the breeze,' said the third.

So the three people went up the hill to the man, to find out.

'We're just curious,' they said, 'are you waiting for someone? Or are you perhaps looking for a cow that has strayed? Or are you just enjoying the breeze?'

'None of those,' said the man. 'Actually I was taking a leak in the bushes.'

--

Pupil: Why did the Bodhidharma come from India to China?

Master: I have no idea. Why do people always ask me that?

--

Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said, "The flag is moving."
The other said, "The wind is moving."
Julian Barbour happened to be passing by. He told them, "Not the wind, not the flag."
The first monk said, "Is the mind moving?"
Barbour replied, "Not even mind is moving."
The second monk said, "Is time moving?"
Barbour said, "There is no time. You could say that it is mu-ving."
"Then why do we think that flags flap, and wind blows, and minds change, and time moves?" inquired the first monk.
Barbour thought, and said, "Because you remember."

--

One afternoon a student said "Roshi, I don't really understand what's going on. I mean, we sit in zazen and we gassho to each other and everything, and Felicia got enlightened when the bottom fell out of her water-bucket, and Todd got enlightened when you popped him one with your staff, and people work on koans and get enlightened, but I've been doing this for two years now, and the koans don't make any sense, and I don't feel enlightened at all! Can you just tell me what's going on?"

"Well you see," Roshi replied, "for most people, and especially for most educated people like you and I, what we perceive and experience is heavily mediated, through language and concepts that are deeply ingrained in our ways of thinking and feeling. Our objective here is to induce in ourselves and in each other a psychological state that involves the unmediated experience of the world, because we believe that that state has certain desirable properties. It's impossible in general to reach that state through any particular form or method, since forms and methods are themselves examples of the mediators that we are trying to avoid. So we employ a variety of ad hoc means, some linguistic like koans and some non-linguistic like zazen, in hopes that for any given student one or more of our methods will, in whatever way, engender the condition of non-mediated experience that is our goal. And since even thinking in terms of mediators and goals tends to reinforce our undesirable dependency on concepts, we actively discourage exactly this kind of analytical discourse."

And the student was enlightened."

Watchmen, the 2nd Trailer. *Updated w/better video.*

Continues to look good. Just awesome visuals. Fingers crossed that it comes off.

"Banning “Gaijin.”"

This is funnier when you know there are some uptight, professionally offended morons people who "object" to the term gaijin.



Via The Outside World News #2 and #3: Banning “Gaijin” | Japan Probe

Today's Awesomeness.

Brought to you by: riot rite right clit clip click

Overheard Roundup.

I am exhausted today [I blame yesterday's elementary school classes] and sharing/propagating the viral humor makes me feel better. That is all.

Overheard Everywhere | In Every Job That Must Be Done, There Is an Element of Fun:

"Gay male flight attendant: If you'll be requiring wheelchair assistance when we get to Cleveland, please remain seated. Because, if you stand up, we'll assume you've been healed by the Holy Spirit and no longer need our help.
Passengers: (laughter)
Flight attendant: And please keep your seatbelts fastened until we've reached the gate and come to a complete stop.
(man in front row unbuckles his belt)
Flight attendant: Stop it, cheater!

Southwest Airlines Flight
Cleveland, Ohio

Overheard by: Erica"

Overheard in the Office | This Sort Of Thing Happens Before Lift-Off at NASA All the Time:

"Boss to office (about imminent website launch): Five minutes to go live!
Boss to sysadmin: Are you going to do anything?
Sysadmin to boss: I'm diabetic, I need a burrito.
Boss to office: Go live delayed for burrito.

Tucson, Arizona"

"It's funny, cute, sentimental, and incredibly awkward and horrifying all at once."

I watched entirely too much Happy Days as a kid to not enjoy this.

The Fonz, Richie, Andy, and Opie are pro Obama - Boing Boing:

"Ron Howard, Andy Grffith, and Henry Winkler revived some old characters in a pro-Obama 'call to action.' It's funny, cute, sentimental, and incredibly awkward and horrifying all at once."

Training 200/T2 - 53.

20m cardio/6 meals/2.6L water

Because I had [apparently] made a note of it in my calendar, this is day 200 since I started working out again. Consistency is key...

Body-for-LIFE Challenge Champions 1999:

"Tom Archipley 1999 Grand Champion"

It really does happen.

Overheard in the Office | Get My Baseball Bat:

"Coworker, waving arms in the air frantically: Ahhh! The kindergarteners are rioting!

Orem, Utah

Overheard by: Do what?"

T2 - 49 thru 52.

49 - 20m cardio/2 meals/2L water [Sundays are a bitch]
50 - Lower body wkout/6 meals/3.4L water
51 - 20m cardio/6 meals/3L water
52 - Upper body wkout/6 meals/3.1L water

In other news, inspired by Mike, I picked up one of those fancy scales that do BF%. And the results were so sad and depressing that I'm gonna wait till I get those #s down before I start bearing more of my soul and embarrassment here.

Inspiration: Body-for-LIFE Challenge Champions 2000:

"Taizo Ikeda
2000 Grand Champion
Men Age 26-32

Taizo Ikeda from Canada — This 31-year-old mechanical designer from Canada was tired of feeling dissatisfied with his life and decided to do something about it. He lost 25 lbs. of fat, becoming a new man in the process. 'I feel a great sense of accomplishment by sticking to the promise I made to myself. I got to know myself and my body in a new way, and now appreciate life and what it has to offer.'"

I took a couple seminars from him when I lived in Hawaii - "Enson Inoue arrested in Japan for possession of marijuana."

Four things come to mind reading this... 1 - Enson was a pretty good dude the couple times I met him. An intense guy, but nice. 2 - I really can't believe in the 21st century people are still being arrested for possessing a plant that grows naturally upon the earth. 3 - That being said, you do not carry in Japan. They are insane about this kind of thing. Somehow marijuana became the king of all bad guys here. They do not play. And 4 - I wonder if his Yakuza connections are gonna help or hinder him with this?

Enson Inoue arrested in Japan for possession of marijuana | FightOpinion.com - Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry.:

"On the Japanese news wires today, a mainstream media report that 41-year old Enson Inoue (of Iwatsuki-ku, Saitama) was arrested by Tokyo Metropolitan Police on possession of marijuana. According to the report, police suspected Inoue of possession and he admitted as such to the authorities. The report claims that Inoue told police that he got the marijuana from an acquaintance a month ago and inhaled about 3 or 4 times in a month.

According to reports at both Mainichi Daily News and Nikkan Sports, a policeman busted Inoue at 3 PM JST on the 18th (Saturday) at a coin-parking machine in (Ikebukuro) Toshima city (Tokyo). During a car inspection, the policeman discovered marijuana cigarettes (up to 16.9 grams of marijuana) in the car’s sunroof, door compartment, and pocket(s) of Inoue’s clothing."

North Carolinians with no damn home training.

Sometimes I do not miss it one damn bit. Ignorance and rudeness, I swear.

'Socialist,' 'Muslim' — Ugly reception for Obama - Politico Staff - Politico.com:

"Barack Obama's stop at Cape Fear BBQ and Chicken in Fayetteville, N.C., this afternoon underscored the continued resistance of some voters to his candidacy — and his identity. The trip, according to a pool report, offered “some powerful and at times ugly interaction.”

...Later, Obama came to the long table where Fanning and other members of a local First Presbyterian church were gathered. He held out his hand to her and asked, “How are you, ma’am?” but she declined to shake his hand.

Fanning asked Obama about a North American union, and Obama responded: “Well, you know, I am opposed to it if it were happening. But it doesn’t seem to be actually be happening. The truth of the matter is there is no plans. I’ve talked to a lot of people, including folks down in Texas. There’s no plan to create a common government between Mexico, U.S. and Canada. That’s just not … that’s just not happening. I know some people have been hearing rumors about it. But as far as I can tell, that’s just not something that’s happening. We would never give up our sovereignty in that way. Any other questions?

In an interview, Fanning said, “I still think he’s a closet Muslim.”

But some of the other older white diners looked surprised and slightly uncomfortable as Obama stopped at their tables to shake hands. “I’m surprised, but I’m not going to say anything else,” said Pat Smith, who was joined by her husband."