I’m going to have to go to one of those rotating blogrolls really soon.
Most of the chess bloggers may already be familiar with the newly added chess bloggers…coincidentally, these guys are all last alphabetically in the chess blog list. Patzer’s Corner sorta reminds me of chessloser. Samurai Pawn is the new Knights Errant secretary, so is supposed to be doing a good job. Tacticus Maximus is the originator of the Wilson Gambit and introduced me to the Moron Defense. Wahrheit has some serious chess introspection, as well being a contributor to Eternity Road.
Carson Sasser is a counterexample to my original hypothesis of 55+’ers not blogging. I have no clue how I found his site or why I keep going back. It was the first site I saw with the Thinking Blogger Award. (Incidentally, Carson, feel free to pick up a Worthless Blogger Award if you want it…)
Nor do I have any clue how I stumbled on Dinosaur Mom’s site. She apparently works for the government (a “federal wage slave”), so I briefly considered sticking her under the Enemies list. But it’s probably not her fault. [The Mascot says: Her avatar's hot! I think I'm going to ask it out!]
November 10th, 2007
3 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Blog News
One of several resolutions I’ve had since moving is an increased proportion of home-cooked foods. Last night, I had a hard time deciding what to make (once of the disadvantages of a full refrigerator), and decided to come up with this little experiment.
I’d already had a couple fillets of skin-on trout defrosted. These were quick-fried in an olive oil/vegetable oil combination (non-sensical perhaps, but olive oil’s ’spensive!) The grape sauce was created from a combination of grape juice, soy sauce, vinegar, and something else I think, using corn starch as a thickening agent.
The fillets were served on a bed of brown rice, covered in the grape sauce, and garnished with the remaining green sprigs from a rapidly wilting bundle of cilantro.
The taste was, unfortunately, rather average, and decidedly inferior to the palak paneer that looked like dog excrement.
November 10th, 2007
9 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Grilled Cheese
So far, anyway.
Miami beggars stand in the median and pretend they don’t own any shoes. Houston beggars offer to wash your windshield.
Probably with time, I’ll find as many almost-obvious fakers here as well.
November 9th, 2007
4 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Uncategorized
l3rucewayne, I’m sorry that you lost.
Likely, many of you have seen this already…in fact, I may have shared this on my old blog (which I gave up trying to retrieve a few months ago–there were only a few truly memorable posts, anyway). [The Mascot says: It's not like there've been any memorable posts on this site, either. Well, except the ones I'm in.]
Anyway, it’s the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny! Right up your alley if you’re interested in seeing whether Abraham Lincoln can knock off Batman. Just watch it. It’s weird and wonderful.
November 8th, 2007
5 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Entertainment, History
Over my first week or so of living in Houston, I’ve lived off a limited variety of foodstuffs procured from Hong Kong Food Market. But now was time to do some serious stocking up on food, and I decided to visit a Fiesta (it’s a Texas thang; you wouldn’t understand. Unless you’ve lived in Texas–specifically Houston, Austin, or Dallas. So maybe that should have been “It’s a Houston, Austin, or Dallas thang…”).
It was a mostly uneventful trip, but after I’d covered the entire store, I realized I’d forgotten to buy some sort of cheese, located at the opposite end. Evading shopping carts, dodging small children, and sidling past store employees, I finally reached the end where a blonde lady who looked to be in her 50’s was looking at the cheeses.
When I got there, she told me to make sure to buy foods only if it was OK with God. As an example, she pointed out the Borden brand of cheese: “Borden” spelled backwards spells “Ned rob”, which I guess meant that Borden mentioned people stealing so I wasn’t supposed to buy it. She pointed to some products in her own cart, like some “Grin and Giggle” bath wash which she was supposed to get because she giggled too much. And there was some VO5 or something she was supposed to buy as a punishment from God. I really don’t remember the details.
As she turned to go, she mentioned I was “very nice and very handsome”, a bit of flattery which will certainly improve my evaluation of her (more than likely, I was one of the few people willing to listen to her). Then she noted my Red Cross T-shirt, and I explained to her about my blood donorship. She warned me that when giving blood, they could inject me with AIDS or something.
I figured I was dealing with someone either paranoid or kinda nutty. Then she asked if I knew that the FBI could install an implant that could make you stop talking if they didn’t want you to. I said I didn’t know about it. She laughed and said she was kidding. So now I’m wondering whether she was just messing with me the entire time. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience which I feel the richer for.
Oh, yeah, she wished me a Happy Thanksgiving, too. Very well, then. Happy Thanksgiving, ma’am. I hope our paths cross again.
November 8th, 2007
5 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Grilled Cheese, Religion
Today, I finally did significant food shopping, and randomly, I noticed prepackaged Indian meals by some company called Ashoka (that’s original). Just boil or microwave, and presto, it’s done. Being slightly wary of such products, I bought one of the Palak Paneer variety just to see if the meal would end up tasting non-awful. Well, two actually; it was buy one get one free.
Needless to say, how it looked on my plate was a modicum different than how it looked on the package. And I didn’t get any cute Indian chicks dropping by my place, either. Nonetheless, the quality was adequate enough to keep a couple in reserve for those nights I don’t want to do any real cooking.
November 8th, 2007
8 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Snake Oil
File this under “more because it looks cool”. Thinking Machine 4 plays chess, but the neat-o part is that it graphically shows what the computer’s thinking.
(You can play it here.)
(More screenshots here.)
The computer’s not that good (or, more accurately, it’s not a strong tournament player, but it will beat the guy off the street), and I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I lost to it. Yeah, it was an overlooked tactic; the only excuse is that I was doing something else at the same time as well.
November 7th, 2007
3 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Chess
One night last week, I needed to get food supplies, but was still unfamiliar with the area. Figuring there’s got to be something nearby, I drove down Gessner until seeing Hong Kong Food Market. It was a supermarket, so I stopped in.
This was one of the signs at the front door to greet customers:
NO SHIRT
NO SHOES
NO SKATE
NO CAMERA
These we do not allow in store
Naturally, I rushed right in to check it out, forgetting to take off my own shirt and shoes. Who wouldn’t want to shop at a place where everyone’s forced to go topless? Needless to say, I was bitterly disappointed to find out it was merely a case of Engrish and not official store policy.
Yesterday, my friend and I had a chat about supermarkets, contrasting the somewhat ritzy Randall’s vs other places:
A: at randalls there’s never too long a wait and the staff there will actualy help you. and there’s a starbucks and a fireplace and a living room.
Me: Sounds like luxury. Last night, I went to Hong Kong Food Market (ironically, run by Vietnamese). The cashier had a full-blown conversation with someone and did not speak or look at me except to say “Debit or Credit?” I’m kinda afraid to ask for help there, though. They’ll probably misunderstand my English, think I said their code word for “cocaine” or “prostitute”, and send me to the back to get the illicit goods.
A couple of the products:
Kung Fu Ramen! Recommended by your local Shaolin temple! By the way, anyone want some free incandescent light bulbs?
Awesome! A margin of error indicated on the contents! (Yes, this is why I bought this particular brand of tempura.)
November 6th, 2007
20 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Grilled Cheese
(NOTE: Don’t really send email to this address. Use the link at the top.)
Comcast gave me this e-mail address when signing up–which is fine, I suppose, but I’ll never use it. So I’m sticking it up here to see how fast the spammers start hitting it. (Actually, I already received 5 spams, which is vaguely frightening.)
Remember, spammers: that’s donald.briggs@comcast.net. And I never check the account, so you won’t get a penny or hit from me.
November 5th, 2007
10 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Uncategorized
The two games from this weekend…
A flawed victory
A flawed defeat
November 5th, 2007
10 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Chess
