Shoes + Internets + Robots = <3

Have you ever had a situation where you feel awkward about trying to explain to someone about a habit that may seem totally fine to you, but they just can't grasp the importance of it. I had this very experience with a good friend over the weekend while he helped me move.

So you know, there are boxes stacked everywhere. We're lifting, pushing, heaving, sweating, grunting, whining, etc. It's about 90 degrees... At one point we get to the clothes and shoes boxes. They're large, very large, and I have quite a few of them. As any good friend would he poked fun at the sheer amount of clothing that must be in those boxes, and I took it.

When we got to the box labeled "shoes" and he just stopped in his tracks. As I watched him staring at this box in awe he said "Uhh, that box is shoes?" "Yeah, shoes" "Wow man, that's a lot of shoes" "Yep, I like shoes". Though I have not taken time to study how many pair of shoes a man has on average in this region, or within a specific age demographic I surely do not feel like my shoe collection is that large. Anyway fast forward to today and I find this WONDERFUL story about Zappos employing an army of robots at their fulfillment warehouse. I don’t know about you but knowing that there is an army of robots that I can control by ordering shoes makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Besides, I need a nice cream colored slip on to go with my light khaki suit, right?

Found via: Engadget

I wish this was a miniseries on Discovery Channel.

Good morning.

Somoene must have been thinking about me last night and wanted to make sure I knew about it this morning.

XKCD like totally got my back.

This is perfect.

The spam continues.

My attempt to share the brightest and best time sinks on teh internets continues.

Clever.

I wish that I am clever enough to come up with that hobby. Thanks XKCD!

Fry's Electronics Ads for Seattle / Renton - Valve Black box bundles too!

Hello geeks,

Here is the ad for Fry's electronics in Renton for Oct. 12th to 16th:

http://local.ads.nwsource.com/ads/sites/frys/friday/

Valve's Black Box is NOT dead. It looks like it's just not going to be sold on Steam or in retail channels. Good news is that you can get it for FREE with most ATI Radeon 2600XT cards on Newegg.com. Check this link.

More late night food fun!

So I was not feeling so hot today. Supposed to go to a show tonight with a friend and decided to bail out... What's the next best thing to going out you ask? Roasting
chicken!!!

I decided to read up on why you would want to brine a chicken. It all makes sense. I used a 3qt brine with a 1/4cup of sea salt per qt. In addition to that I added savory, chili powder, 8 cloves of minced garlic, and some black pepper. I've been pretty happy with how it turned out, the chicken was a bit salty, but not bad.

Next up on the menu was my first Risotto. Again, it turned out very good. Since this was my first try I decided to purchase a mix from Trader Joes and read what they had in it. It was short grain Italian rice, and a seasoning packet that was basiclly salt, dried chicken stock, dried wine, starch and a bit of dried mushrooms. While reading up on Risotto I figured that I'd get the rice started with some shallots, garlic, and olive oil. That is where I learned my first lesson. It's true that when you want to wilt some herbs/garlic/etc that you remove it prior to adding the rice and then re-add it later when you're simmering it. I didn't do this and ended up browning a little bit of my garlic too much.

ANYWAY... Things turned out pretty good, since I planned to use half of the seasoning packet (I was not prepared with white wine and stock .... I would have skipped the packet if I had that) and then decided to simmer 2 cups of water with a 14.5oz can of chicken stock. I just went by the book adding stock until it simmered off until I was getting low on stock. At that point I decided to turn down my heat a little, add some hot stock and cover it for a bit.

While the rice was cooking I chopped up some snow peas, red bell pepper and basil (for garnish). I let the rice simmer on low for about 5 minutes, and I figured that I was simmering it uncovered while slowly adding the hot broth for about 20 minutes. When I removed the top the rice was much closer to being done and I had about a cup of hot broth left. I added the veggies and a ladle of hot broth and covered it again, I figured that I was adding about a cup of cold stuff so I wanted to let it sit up top and warm up, it worked out pretty good. About two minutes later I removed the top and just got back to stirring and adding broth until the rice was tender.

I have to say that I was quite surprised in how well this turned out. Sure am looking forward to doing this again, I'm going to need to stock up on the chicken or veggie stock! I want to try grapes and almonds, or spinach and walnuts... actually any nut and veggie sounds good.

When I plated everything my thought was to put some parmasian on top of the rosotto with a little of basil. It was PERFECT. Oh, yeah, and the chicken was yummy too.

PICTURE TIME!

I almost picked up an iPhone last week.

It was finally time for me to make that jump, to throw $300 at another toy I didn't really need. With the 4GB version heavily discounted at the Apple store I felt that paying for AT&T service would be okay since the device, well, it's just so darn pretty. The third party application scene looked like it was thriving... Then of course, 1.1.1 dropped. Guess I will be holding off or just sticking with the safe choice like a Blackberry Curve on T-Mobile. Poop on you, Apple.

Think Different, iPhone version:


Original Think Different commercial:

Do I need to choke a.... ?

Wayne Brady.

What else can I say about this may that has not already been said. He's the smartest dressed man on the planet. He's got rhythm. He can hold a note. And the man knows how to make people laugh, a lot.

So I'm watching some sort of "sing the missing lyric" gameshows on some channel on TV right now. He's hosting, knowing that WIZZLE BRIZZLE has his standards means I'm not dissapointed. It's so wonderful.

That's it, Wayne Brady = Wonderful.

Ask a Ninja?

Love.

Bad times.

I hope to continue this subject of "bad times" going forward, because, it's important to share our feelings.

Bad times are when you can't find your beer glass. Only to realize it is empty in the sink. :(

Have a good night.

News is a local company picked these guys up.

So what if Redmond has their cute Photosynth. This looks a lot more useful right now in digital media applications.

Rick Bayless, I love you.

Rick,

Once again, you've turned my kitchen into something that'll take me a solid hour to clean. You sweet tomatillo lovin' man you! Our time has been short, I've only known you months, but I feel that I would be able to spend the rest of my life with you. Keep that tank top on mister, DIG ME A FIRE PIT! Tonight after seeing Salsa and Tips on my local PBS afflilate you had an interesting salsa verde with chipotle chilies. You mixed this salsa up and decided that some shirmp, onions, and a nice hot skillet would be a good pairing with this salsa.

You. Were. Right.

Though I didn't have any shrimp I did have some chicken thighs. So I grilled and shredded them, made the salsa, and then heated the shredded chicken and salsa in a skillet with some onions that I sweated. Goodness. These tacos were the yum, that is for sure.

Well, off to clean the kitchen. Don't worry Rick, I forgive you.

- Vincent

Pictures!

The video parade continues...

This might be a little NSFW (audio has dirty words). So either keep it down or check it out at home because th1z 1z t3h p\\'nZ0r.