Posts from — March 2008

Some more inductees to the relay for life hall of awesomeness:
- Michelle J
- My parents

… I am a fan of Google Book Search’s scratch-n-sniff books, but of course I’m biased…

I have a love/hate relationship with April Fools Day on the internet. A lot of the “pranks” are very funny, but a great many of them are not. Plus, everyone tends to need to message everyone else saying “DID YOU SEE THIS LOL?” or equivalent. I guess I just get fatigued by it.

I posted a bit about the Google Zurich office before, but I just stumbled upon these pictures worth sharing… the office has a slide and a fire pole:

(photos from the BBC, via Blogoscoped)

I don’t think OSHA would let us do that in the US, though I remember the idea being proposed when I was an intern…

Michelle’s recent post reminded me to post things about cooking, so here’s a bit about a recent adventure.. mostly in the form of complaints.

John and I decided to make Boston Creme Cake (or pie, but it seems like it should be cake) on Saturday. The recipe from the food network said that the prep time was 10 minutes, but this was a COMPLETE LIE. Maybe if you had the recipe memorized and all of the ingredients measured and everything… it seems like 10 minutes is a lower bound on the amount of prep time needed. Plus “1 cup heavy cream, boiling” seems like an unfair ingredient description to me. I know you can have ingredients like “1 carrot, chopped” and stuff, but that you can prepare ahead of time, boiling the cream is time-sensitive, so it should be listed with the chronological parts of the recipe.

Anyway, the result was quite good. The filling had a good consistency and flavor. The chocolate thinner than I would have liked, so I’d recommend reducing the amount of cream that goes in the topping (or increase chocolate, if you dare!). Here’s the final product:

Many thanks to Kym M, Mike P, and Girts F for their donations today. Rock and roll!

Finally together!

I don’t typically watch Rocketboom, but I did really enjoy watching this clip they made, where it looks like everyone but her is moving backwards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDKmFipygWY

Simple and surreal!

In April, I’m joining a small team of googlers for Relay for Life, a 24-hour event to raise money for cancer research. I’m not going to write a lot about the mechanics of the event right now, but I will say that I had a really good time last time I went and even if were a bad time, it’s for a good cause. Anyway, if you realized while doing taxes that you should have done more tax-deductible things last year, perhaps you would be interested in donating some money to the American Cancer Society? Or maybe you have a “cash wad” that is beginning to grow mold, or perhaps the settlement from that time you burned yourself with coffee just came in… regardless: if you can help out, please do!

Here’s my donation page, complete with a joke that isn’t terribly funny! (nor offensive, for the record) Many thanks to anyone who can donate.

Also.. makes a great gift

If you watch the news at all, you’ve probably seen several clips from Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor who said some things that many found offensive. Obama condemned the remarks and distanced himself from Wright, but it still seems to be part of the news cycle. What doesn’t seem to make it into the news cycle is the context in which the remarks were said. It’s 10 minutes long and absolutely worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ

I don’t think what he says is outrageous in context. He’s talking about blowback and resisting the desire for revenge, something more people should have been discussing back then.

Meanwhile, here are Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell a couple days after 9/11:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CAcdta_8I

Note Falwell referring to 9/11 as “probably what we deserve”.

Anyway, if you enjoy pain, here’s 5.5 minutes of Fox & Friends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5vzwJXszww

I don’t know what I find more surprising: Chris Wallace suggesting that “two hours of Obama-bashing […] is somewhat excessive” or the hosts disagreeing with that statement. My favorite part is the end:
Chris Wallace: Thank you guys, I still love you!
Steve Doocy: Well, you’ve got an odd way of showing it..

I guess this post is probably just preaching to the choir… maybe all my political posts are, I have no idea.