Saturday, April 28, 2007
How much are your bookmarks worth?
Think about it: If you've been online for any length of time, you probably have THOUSANDS of bookmarks, many of them for sites that'd be time-consuming to locate via a search engine, especially if they aren't high-ranked... and that's assuming that you remember every site you've bookmarked, and that each one has either a distinctive name or unusual keywords to give you any sort of chance of pinpointing it amongst what're probably a million similar sites. This means that if you lost all your bookmarks, by which I mean ALL versions, forms, copies, backups and files of bookmarks from every computer you use, some of those sites would only be recoverable with a great deal of time and effort, possibly more than you'd ever be able to make, some you'd never find again, and probably MOST you'd have no specific memory of and thus have no way to look for; what would that mean to you? Take a minute and look at your bookmarks, and ask yourself how many of them you'd reasonably be able to recreate if they were lost; then, ask yourself how much you'd be willing to pay to protect them. I'd probably be willing to pay $1000 for mine, maybe more.
What about your cookies? You're probably signed up with a whole bunch of sites, some of which make you go through elaborate procedures to get back into your accounts if you can't remember your login info; what'd it be worth to you to prevent your entire cookie file (and all backups) from being wiped out? For me, this is worth a couple of hundred dollars; there's nothing that'd be lost forever if mine vanished, so it's not as valuable as bookmarks.
How about all the files you've downloaded over the years? Music, videos, images, cartoons, photos, animated gifs, graphics, etc; how much would you pay to keep from losing every copy you've got of all of those things? For me, this is probably a $1K deal again.
And your blog entries? Some people delete all their stuff periodically anyways, to get a "fresh start" or some such thing, but most of us place a little more value on what we write; what's your blog content worth to you? Frankly, I'd let all my posts about my personal life, and the ones about trivial stuff like movies or food, go without a whimper unless I could get them reasonably cheaply; I don't love the sound of my own voice, bloggily speaking, enough to value everything I write highly just because *I* wrote it. There are a fair # of my posts, though, that cover spiritual, psychological or sociological topics that represent a huge amount of time, effort and thought, and for them I'd pay... it looks ridiculous typed out, so let's just say I'd value them at quite a bit more than mere bookmarks.
For those of you with fancy templates, it'd also be fair to ask how much you'd pay to not have to start from scratch, with a blank or simple pre-fab template, with none of your files or scripts (again, this means that all backup copies of everything would be lost); I'd be willing to pay maybe $100 to not have to find and re-install all my blog doodads and such... I bet folks who did detailed artwork and/or code for their blogs would pay a great deal more.
How about all your emails from loved/liked ones, including those that have photos attached? How about your entire inbox address book(s)? How about your complete IM histories? How about the meaningful posts you've made on forums or other people's blogs? How much is all that worth?
What's the total combined value to you of all these internet-related pieces of information?
When's the last time you backed all that stuff up?
The fine folks at Shedd's/Country Crock have created a way for you to help feed the hungry for free, and all they ask is that you "Tell us about a time you shared with someone or someone shared with you. For every story you share with us, we'll donate a meal to a family in need through America's Second Harvest." They've provided 12K meals as of when I'm writing this, and are promising to provide up to a MILLION meals, so go here
http://spreadthesharing.com/StoriesofSharing/TellStory.aspx
and add your story... remember, all across America people are hungry every day (disgraceful, isn't it?), not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas when most of us donate food.
What about your cookies? You're probably signed up with a whole bunch of sites, some of which make you go through elaborate procedures to get back into your accounts if you can't remember your login info; what'd it be worth to you to prevent your entire cookie file (and all backups) from being wiped out? For me, this is worth a couple of hundred dollars; there's nothing that'd be lost forever if mine vanished, so it's not as valuable as bookmarks.
How about all the files you've downloaded over the years? Music, videos, images, cartoons, photos, animated gifs, graphics, etc; how much would you pay to keep from losing every copy you've got of all of those things? For me, this is probably a $1K deal again.
And your blog entries? Some people delete all their stuff periodically anyways, to get a "fresh start" or some such thing, but most of us place a little more value on what we write; what's your blog content worth to you? Frankly, I'd let all my posts about my personal life, and the ones about trivial stuff like movies or food, go without a whimper unless I could get them reasonably cheaply; I don't love the sound of my own voice, bloggily speaking, enough to value everything I write highly just because *I* wrote it. There are a fair # of my posts, though, that cover spiritual, psychological or sociological topics that represent a huge amount of time, effort and thought, and for them I'd pay... it looks ridiculous typed out, so let's just say I'd value them at quite a bit more than mere bookmarks.
For those of you with fancy templates, it'd also be fair to ask how much you'd pay to not have to start from scratch, with a blank or simple pre-fab template, with none of your files or scripts (again, this means that all backup copies of everything would be lost); I'd be willing to pay maybe $100 to not have to find and re-install all my blog doodads and such... I bet folks who did detailed artwork and/or code for their blogs would pay a great deal more.
How about all your emails from loved/liked ones, including those that have photos attached? How about your entire inbox address book(s)? How about your complete IM histories? How about the meaningful posts you've made on forums or other people's blogs? How much is all that worth?
What's the total combined value to you of all these internet-related pieces of information?
When's the last time you backed all that stuff up?
The fine folks at Shedd's/Country Crock have created a way for you to help feed the hungry for free, and all they ask is that you "Tell us about a time you shared with someone or someone shared with you. For every story you share with us, we'll donate a meal to a family in need through America's Second Harvest." They've provided 12K meals as of when I'm writing this, and are promising to provide up to a MILLION meals, so go here
http://spreadthesharing.com/StoriesofSharing/TellStory.aspx
and add your story... remember, all across America people are hungry every day (disgraceful, isn't it?), not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas when most of us donate food.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Omni's semi-recipes
I can't just call them "recipes" because they're only partial ideas about how food can be put together to taste good; I don't cook, but as a supertaster (see my post of 3-5-04) trying to find ways to eat in a culinary landscape designed for tasters and non-tasters I've given alot of thought to food and how it can be combined in palatable, convenient ways, and this is what I've come up with:
1) The glory of Monterey jack, especially pepper jack (which is just a LITTLE hot, so don't be afraid to try it):
a) Mozzarella goes bad quickly, and isn't actually that good; instead, use jack cheese, which looks the same, has the same consistency, but lasts longer and tastes MUCH better, on Italian dishes (including pizza).
b) Instead of using only cheddar cheese with Mexican dishes (how did we Americans get used to doing that-it's not like this British cheese is authentic on Mexican food), omelettes, mashed potatoes, etc, mix it with jack; the latter is far lower in fat and calories, doesn't separate its oil out so easily, and adds a great deal of flavor, especially if you use pepper jack... it's one of the rare occasions where reducing fat and calories IMPROVES flavor.
2) Sourdough makes it better:
Sourdough isn't only for the rolls in fine restaurants and the occasional Jack in the Box burger; in addition to being just plain tastier than white bread, the tanginess of it adds another dimension of flavor to whatever you're eating it with, which makes food more satisfying... and even by itself, with real butter (the trans fats in margarine are deadly), the sweet/sour combo is so good that you can nearly make a meal out of it. I keep hoping for the return of sourdough rye, and sourdough dill rye, which starred in the best sandwiches of my childhood; if you can get these breads where you live, try some and see what I mean. I also hope that eventually some entrepreneurial type will make a sourdough crust for pizza; if they also substitute pepper jack for mozzarella, they'll have made the ultimate version of my favorite food.
3) WTF is nutmeg, anyway? If you've got that ancient bottle of nutmeg that only gets used as a garnish for eggnog, toss it out and use cinnamon instead; it has a nicer color, smells better, and is utterly delicious.
4) Sprouts aren't just a relic of the 70's; they're the fastest way to get some green stuff into a sandwich, pitas, tacos, etc, because they don't need to be cut or shredded. Even better, if you can find radish or daikon sprouts (a daikon is a root veggie that tastes like a mild radish), they've got that sharp radish-y taste to them, and are REALLY good with more strongly seasoned foods... I even put them on my Montague's All-Meat Marvel pizza.
5) And speaking of the 70's: Remember yogurt and granola?
Now that they've discovered that over 70% of our immune system's in our digestive tract (who'd have guessed it-I'd have thought 0%, wouldn't you?), it's time to start eating the only thing known to directly enhance the intestinal flora... active cultures, found in yogurt and yogurt-ish drinks (there's also cultured soy stuff, but I wouldn't feed that to a dog). Make sure the carton says CONTAINS active cultures, not "made with," as the latter doesn't mean that any of the cultures are still alive and the former does. Unless you want to ingest as much fat and calories as if you'd had ice cream, go for nonfat yogurt, and get plain to avoid having a cup of sugar in it; granola's sweet (Quaker Valley 100% Natural's still the best), and the tartness of plain yogurt goes well with it. To greatly increase the fiber and nutrition of the grain part of the mix, go to Whole Foods and get that other 70's favorite, wheat germ, and also some bran (in its natural form of little flakes, not a yucky cereal containing it); you can use lots of wheat germ, which tastes pretty good, but go easy on the bran, which is sort of like eating cardboard but which is unnoticeable in small amounts. Add some fresh fruit and you've got your nutritional bases covered. You don't have to save this for breakfast; we use it as a dinner once a week, and it'll be extra-good when it gets too hot to cook in a few months.
6) Glop:
This is the closest thing I have to an actual recipe; it's what my husband and I call the dessert I came up with for us to have on special occasions. Unlike most folks, I HATE pie crust, and don't get too excited by cakes, so I combined the things I DO like into something that's not only delicious but fun, and allows each eater to personalize it to their own preferences: canned pie filling (usually light cherry for me and tart cherries for my husband), mountains of whipped cream (Cool Whip Extra Creamy is the best), and walnuts or pecans. My husband adds chocolate syrup to his, and if we've got shredded coconut that's awesome too. On alternating occasions, we have the glop on angel food cake; I'm betting that pound cake would be good too, but no one makes it fresh around here. And that's all there is to it; no baking, no measuring, no preparation, just open up the containers and let people glop it onto their plates... hence the name.
Bon appetit!!
1) The glory of Monterey jack, especially pepper jack (which is just a LITTLE hot, so don't be afraid to try it):
a) Mozzarella goes bad quickly, and isn't actually that good; instead, use jack cheese, which looks the same, has the same consistency, but lasts longer and tastes MUCH better, on Italian dishes (including pizza).
b) Instead of using only cheddar cheese with Mexican dishes (how did we Americans get used to doing that-it's not like this British cheese is authentic on Mexican food), omelettes, mashed potatoes, etc, mix it with jack; the latter is far lower in fat and calories, doesn't separate its oil out so easily, and adds a great deal of flavor, especially if you use pepper jack... it's one of the rare occasions where reducing fat and calories IMPROVES flavor.
2) Sourdough makes it better:
Sourdough isn't only for the rolls in fine restaurants and the occasional Jack in the Box burger; in addition to being just plain tastier than white bread, the tanginess of it adds another dimension of flavor to whatever you're eating it with, which makes food more satisfying... and even by itself, with real butter (the trans fats in margarine are deadly), the sweet/sour combo is so good that you can nearly make a meal out of it. I keep hoping for the return of sourdough rye, and sourdough dill rye, which starred in the best sandwiches of my childhood; if you can get these breads where you live, try some and see what I mean. I also hope that eventually some entrepreneurial type will make a sourdough crust for pizza; if they also substitute pepper jack for mozzarella, they'll have made the ultimate version of my favorite food.
3) WTF is nutmeg, anyway? If you've got that ancient bottle of nutmeg that only gets used as a garnish for eggnog, toss it out and use cinnamon instead; it has a nicer color, smells better, and is utterly delicious.
4) Sprouts aren't just a relic of the 70's; they're the fastest way to get some green stuff into a sandwich, pitas, tacos, etc, because they don't need to be cut or shredded. Even better, if you can find radish or daikon sprouts (a daikon is a root veggie that tastes like a mild radish), they've got that sharp radish-y taste to them, and are REALLY good with more strongly seasoned foods... I even put them on my Montague's All-Meat Marvel pizza.
5) And speaking of the 70's: Remember yogurt and granola?
Now that they've discovered that over 70% of our immune system's in our digestive tract (who'd have guessed it-I'd have thought 0%, wouldn't you?), it's time to start eating the only thing known to directly enhance the intestinal flora... active cultures, found in yogurt and yogurt-ish drinks (there's also cultured soy stuff, but I wouldn't feed that to a dog). Make sure the carton says CONTAINS active cultures, not "made with," as the latter doesn't mean that any of the cultures are still alive and the former does. Unless you want to ingest as much fat and calories as if you'd had ice cream, go for nonfat yogurt, and get plain to avoid having a cup of sugar in it; granola's sweet (Quaker Valley 100% Natural's still the best), and the tartness of plain yogurt goes well with it. To greatly increase the fiber and nutrition of the grain part of the mix, go to Whole Foods and get that other 70's favorite, wheat germ, and also some bran (in its natural form of little flakes, not a yucky cereal containing it); you can use lots of wheat germ, which tastes pretty good, but go easy on the bran, which is sort of like eating cardboard but which is unnoticeable in small amounts. Add some fresh fruit and you've got your nutritional bases covered. You don't have to save this for breakfast; we use it as a dinner once a week, and it'll be extra-good when it gets too hot to cook in a few months.
6) Glop:
This is the closest thing I have to an actual recipe; it's what my husband and I call the dessert I came up with for us to have on special occasions. Unlike most folks, I HATE pie crust, and don't get too excited by cakes, so I combined the things I DO like into something that's not only delicious but fun, and allows each eater to personalize it to their own preferences: canned pie filling (usually light cherry for me and tart cherries for my husband), mountains of whipped cream (Cool Whip Extra Creamy is the best), and walnuts or pecans. My husband adds chocolate syrup to his, and if we've got shredded coconut that's awesome too. On alternating occasions, we have the glop on angel food cake; I'm betting that pound cake would be good too, but no one makes it fresh around here. And that's all there is to it; no baking, no measuring, no preparation, just open up the containers and let people glop it onto their plates... hence the name.
Bon appetit!!
