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April 23, 2009

kielbasa, cat, math

Things I want to do: drink a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and eat an entire Trader Joe's turkey kielbasa (pre-cooked!) and have the whole thing amount to 21.5 points out of my daily allotment of 34.

God bless you, Weight-Watchers Online.

Kitty broke a red wine glass. It was full of wine at the time. I was not pleased.

I swear this is training for children: I feel bad for yelling at her, given that a) she's a cat, b) she didn't mean to do it, c) nobody was injured and d) the glass is easily replaced. We are too permissive about letting her on the coffee table when we're eating, which is why she was up there in the first place. So it all comes back to bad parenting.

Maybe somebody else can have children instead.

Kara is out with coworkers and I thawed the grill for the season. She weathered the winter well (the grill, not Kara...well, Kara did too, but I was talking about my Weber Q--Consumer Reports loved it for a reason; it's not as cheap as a supermarket hibachi, but if you want something that will last, it's the only small gas grill you should bother buying.)

I started off grilling red and cubanelle peppers and a vidalia onion in a grilling basket--tossed with olive oil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, black pepper and garlic powder. Threw the turkey sausage on the grill next to the basket, and realized that the veggies just weren't getting that good char. Inspired partially by the fact that attempting to toss the veggies in their (hot) basket ended up with half of them on the grill, I put the rest on there too. I cut them pretty coarsely, so very few went through the grate.

After a bit, I cut the kielbasa and tossed it in with the veggies, kind of sloshed the whole mix around over the course of twenty minutes or so, and then put it back into the grill basket to cook a bit more. The last part was probably unnecessary; honestly, peppers and onions have such a high water content that you can cook them over direct heat (on a gas grill at least) for fairly long without reducing them completely to char. In the end, you get a good combination of crunchy vegetable and charred, crispy edges.

kielbasa_peppers_onions.jpg

Obviously, kielbasa is one of the superior forms of meat, and the grill is the superior form of cooking meat, so the equation is something like:

kielbasa(meat) + onions(peppers)(vegetable)^oil = awesome

Posted by Mark at 08:29 PM | Comments (2)

April 22, 2009

philly, traffic, cheesesteaks

We finally made it down to Philly to visit Brother Matt, a trip that was hastened by his roommate's imminent departure for D.C. and our campaign to bring him north to Boston.

But, we can't do that just yet. His life down there is far too cool.

His house has a bar in the basement, a beer pong table, and a keggerator with multiple kegs inside. They have a deck. They live in a suburb with a whole street filled with awesome bars and microbreweries. And downtown Philly is awfully fun.

First, the brief downsides: the trips down and back were both brutally long. It should have taken just over 5 hours from where we left Boston, and instead, we spend 8 on the trip down and 7+ on the trip back. The Cross-Bronx Expressway and GW Bridge at rush hour are to be avoided, and there's no getting around the perpetual 91-95 backup at New Haven--why do all these major intersections only have 2 lanes? And furthermore, on the Cross-Bronx, why on earth would you ever go from 6 lanes down to 3? And further-furthermore, speaking of the trip back up, whose idea is it to take Rt. 95, the major north-south artery on the east coast, down to a single lane on a Sunday night?

But, we made it down and back, and that's the important part. Flying and trains are just not practical; next time we'll try 84 further west to 87 south and try to go wide around NYC. It was nice to see the skyline, though.

We didn't do nearly as much touristy stuff as we had originally planned, but that's only because we were having too much fun doing everything else. When we arrived on Friday night, Matt had turkey burgers and corn on the cob all ready to go, with plenty of beer to go around. The burgers had a nice sharpness to them that I later discovered was jalapenos and bleu cheese--I didn't realize I liked bleu, and I'm not sure that I'd gnaw on a hunk the way I like sharp cheddar or habanero jack, but I certainly like it in burgers.

The night was like an episode of some sitcom--people just showed up at their house. The night turned into a party.

The next morning, we had breakfast on the balcony and ended up having a couple of beers. We made the executive decision that Matt should just drive us around Philly so we could get in a quick driving tour, and then take advantage of the 70-degree weather, apartment deck, and copious amounts of beer. Downtown Philly is really neat; it's bigger than I thought, and we saw a lot of people out in the many parks and open spaces taking advantage of the weather. Nothing like some cities, where "downtown" is a ghost town, except for the homeless (here's looking at you, Atlanta).

We went through the sketchy neighborhood, the one where you don't get out of your car, and it reminded me a bit of Baltimore--boarded-up row houses everywhere. Philly sure loves their murals, though, and interestingly, the graffiti artists don't touch them.

We stopped at the ACME for food, which included each of us getting a deli pickle to eat in the car, and many flavors of Pringles (they have this new "extreme" edition of chips that are flavored like other things, like dill pickle, Mexican dip, buffalo wing, and mozzarella sticks), and we had a chip tasting while we were hanging out in the sun. Also, Manayunk has a drive-through beer distributor. You sit in your car, and they put the beer in your trunk. Obviously, we brought back some cases of Yuengling.

Saturday progressed with hanging out, the neighbors coming over, some food and beer down by the river in Manayunk, and me going to bed early while Kara, Matt and Derick went out and got another beer--yes, I was officially too old to hang. But it was an amazing afternoon, and one of the highlights of recent vacations.

Mom and Dad drove out, too early, on Sunday, and after a bit of recovery, we headed to Pat's and Geno's for our Philly Cheese Steak Comparison Lunch. Both lines were long but moved fast. At Pat's, somebody complained about onions getting onto his steak "witout" and, after an exchange of profanity, ended up clearing the kitchen for what might well have been a brawl on the other side of the restaurant.

Thoughts about cheesesteaks:

On the way back to Matt's, we drove through the Italian Market; we'll make a point of actually stopping there next trip. Then it was back to the house (via a stop for ice cream on pretzel cones), and then back on the road.

So, great weekend. Philly officially has my respect. And, Matt's got a great life down there: lots of cool people and a cool place to live. I'm quite proud of how well he's doing.

We're going to try to visit again, but I have to get over the 16 hours we spent in the car for this last trip first. Stupid NYC right in the middle.

Posted by Mark at 10:51 AM | Comments (2)

April 15, 2009

steak tips in boston

I'm doing the whole Weight Watchers Online thing again. It's working out pretty well; I've lost about 7 pounds so far with no major lifestyle changes.

I did the program with some success quite a few years ago, and it's interesting to see how it's changed. For one thing, they now have a specific "For Men" program, which is a big improvement.

There are articles written to help you make better eating decisions and figure out how to avoid rewarding yourself with food, or using food as a coping mechanism, but they used to be heavily slanted towards women. Things like "celebrate meeting your weight goal with a manicure" or "if you're having a bad day, instead of ice cream, watch a movie about feelings" or "exercise by having pillow fights with your girlfriends" or typical girly stuff like that. Now they have more male-oriented articles like how to go out with your friends to a bar and make smart choices at happy hour or recipes you can make with leftover liquor and stuff like that.

They've also added the concept of "set points" which is where you can either estimate exactly how many points-worth of food you're eating, or you can give it a set value and eat as much of it as you want, within reason. It's only for relatively healthy foods that are also filling, like brown rice or grilled chicken. And the idea isn't "oh, I can just have 5 pounds of rice and only give it 5 points," but rather, eating brown rice until you feel you've had your fill of it isn't going to end up being that much, if you're honest about stopping when you're full.

I discovered that steak is one of those "set points" foods. Usually when I go out to eat I would get something on a bun, which is not very Weight Watchers friendly, and of course french fries, which, hey, you can eat, but you can't eat very much for the points (oven fries are a different matter, but they hardly ever have those in restaurants...I stick with a baked potato instead). So, I'm on a mission to try the steak tips in every restaurant around Boston.

It's been fun so far...it's better-tasting, usually, and certainly better for you. I'd rather have some juicy steak over some reheated frozen shoestring fries from the back of a Sysco truck any day.

I think so far my favorite have been the tips I had last night at Whiskey's Smokehouse down on Boylston. They were really tender and juicy, and came with an awesome big baked potato, which I topped with hot sauce, and some black beans, also topped with hot sauce. Harry's has some good tips as well, which are a little more conventional and very healthy, since you can get them with a side salad. I was disappointed with White Horse; they were overdone and kind of bland, but I have to give The Pourhouse credit for being one of the first places to actually cook them somewhat medium rather than medium-well, even though their flavor was only mediocre.

Posted by Mark at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2009

brand redux, creativity, place

It's possible that part of the problem is, I've forgotten what makes me unique. I've forgotten what my brand was always about.

I never got into this biz because I was the worlds greatest programmer...because I was amazingly good at math, at logic. I think somewhere along the line I forgot that being a geek is not necessarily 100% about being left-brain, analytical. Some of it is about being thoughtful. Creative.

That's what this whole Internet thing was supposed to be all about. The math, the programming, the databases...all of that was just the bricks and mortar. We still needed to architect the buildings. And beyond that, we needed to dream the buildings, envision the buildings...envision the types of things we could build, that were more than four walls and a roof. What point is it if the paint is different and the windows are in different spots? And what difference does it make to me to try to be the world's greatest carpenter? It's not going to happen...and that's not the point. That's not what I'm good at. It's the imagining...what could we do, to solve these problems in new, better, different ways? Let somebody else worry about the execution...what's the concept?

Now I realize that you can't start out by being the idea guy. You have to do your time in the trenches, laying bricks and snapping chalk lines, because there are a whole lot of bricklayer positions and not many architects and only a handful of artists. But, you hang out in the trenches, and you don't worry so much that you aren't the best bricklayer. You learn about it, but you have to remember, focus on your strengths. What's your core strength? What's your core value, your brand, the thing you bring to the table? And for me, it's that imagination, that creativity.

Instead of spending so much time feeling frustrated about the execution, I've forgotten that the idea is really the thing...the idea lets you work smarter, not harder. And that's where the fun, the passion, the enjoyment really comes from.

I'm starting to understand my brand. It's funny because you live 31 years, you work all this time at different things and go in different directions, and it takes this long just for things to start to jell. You have your youthful idealism and the gritty reality of work and the understanding of business and the experience of the way the world works, and just now, just now, does it all start to make sense.

Anyway, I'm not quitting my job or doing anything crazy, I'm just beginning to come to an understanding of what "me" is, and that's kind of exciting. Exciting to exist within the world as it is now, but to really feel like I'm starting to get what it's all about, what I'm about, and that makes it a lot more fun.

Posted by Mark at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2009

branding

Just got done watching an interview that Digg did with Trent Reznor and I found it very interesting...he talks quite a bit about business models and the record industry. I find it refreshing to see an artist really talking about things like monetization and marketing because it makes me feel more comfortable with learning about business...that learning to sell things and cover your costs and even make some profit is not some evil thing.

I'm a little jealous of people with popular blogging sites because they are really doing what I should be doing...writing about a subject for a set audience, monetizing the whole thing in some way, and contributing to the greater body of knowledge that's out there. It's like, with the internet, you've got such a low barrier to entry that there's absolutely no excuse not to get out there and build a site and see what kind of audience you can gather. I wish I had the focus and drive and energy to figure out exactly what it is that I want to do, what niche is out there that isn't being filled by somebody, and go do it.

Not that I don't like my current job; it's great and I don't plan to leave it. I just wish I could somehow channel excess energy and creativity into something else, something bigger.

I wonder about the business model for literary publishing on the internet. I've always had this idea about being a novelist, of at least writing something, but I wonder if it would make sense to self-publish, do a serial-style book, cover costs with advertising, and then if it were popular enough, to create an actual bound book. Would anybody read something as long as a book online? I'm not sure I would...I like having a bound novel. But is the dead-tree publishing model dying along with music publishing?

Trent spoke of Nine Inch Nails as a sort of a brand. What is the Mark Dalius brand? What does it represent, and who would want to buy it?

Posted by Mark at 04:30 PM | Comments (1)

April 06, 2009

creation, consumption, comics

It occurs to me how much easier it is to consume than to create.

The internet is a prime example of this: effectively infinite content, expanding and changing far faster than a human reader could ever keep up, like trying to eat at every restaurant in Manhattan before one closes and another opens to take its place. You can hang out here forever, just surfing, linking, reading, watching, and you don't have to contribute to it a bit. Just the trail of your passage on somebody's access logs.

Labatt just walked over for some kitty lap time. I have a theory: it seems she comes over more often when the laptop is in my lap, creating a super-warm spot for her to rest upon. The laptop always plays second fiddle to her when jockying for prime lap real estate. She's spoiled.

I'm pretty happy these days, which is a good thing. On the other hand, sadness and insecurity more often breed creativity; songs and stories are an outlet for feelings. When you feel happy, you just want to feel it, like when I fell asleep on my chair in the living room yesterday afternoon with the sun on my face. You don't write a song about it.

It's a generalization. When you're too sad to write, you're too sad to write. I guess there's a happy medium.

I've been sick a lot this winter which I don't care for; I have the sniffles right now and I managed to have conjunctivitis in both of my eyes this weekend. Didn't get a chance to get out of the house thanks to being contagious, so I'll have to continue my quest to eat all the steak tips in Boston this week--I'm doing the Weight Watchers Online thing again and they're pretty reasonable for you, compared to all the other stuff you can eat out at restaurants. Tip: stay away from french fries and anything on a bun. My personal current fave is steak tips with either a side of rice, or a side salad with a nice vinaigrette.

I got a big package from Amazon this week: Pearl Jam's collectors re-release of Ten, plus a bunch of graphic novels I've been meaning to read. So far, I've made it through Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Batman: Year One. The previous two make for great stories that I'm surprised they even attempted to translate to film (I haven't seen either movie yet) and I can see how a lot of Batman Begins was based on Frank Miller's imagining of the start of the Batman mythos. Also watched Transformers on Friday night and Iron Man on Saturday night. Not sure what the superhero obsession is lately.

So I'm on my chair right now and I have to head to the office in a few minutes for the rest of today's conference calls. After that, I'll do some QA on the development work my guys in India are doing, and then maybe do some reading for school. Kara and I have finally started writing up Thank You notes from the wedding.

That's it. II should be doing more creative work, but it's hard.

Posted by Mark at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)