Month: October 2003

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master,

If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

Kipling, Rudyard. &ldquo;If&hellip;&rdquo; <i>Rewards and Fairies</i>. 1910. <a href="http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_IF.htm" title="Poems - If--">&lt;http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_IF.htm&gt;</a> (19 October 2003).

Breakfast this morning was two more of those low-fat sweet rolls, a glass of orange juice, and hash brown potatoes.



<ins datetime="2003-10-19T15:16:00-05:00">Lunch was a hand full of peanuts.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-10-20T07:21:00-05:00">Dinner was a big salad and a Double D. Afterwards, we went to the in-laws, where Gretchen&rsquo;s sister had made apple dumplings.</ins>

I found this recipe over at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/54009" title="Amazon.com : Old-Fashioned Beef Stew">Amazon.com</a>.

Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

This is the classic recipe with beef braised in a red-wine and beef broth. Serve it straight up or ladle it over noodles, soft polenta, or rice.

---

Makes four main-dish servings

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 pound beef stewing meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 5 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1 cup red wine
• 3-½ cups homemade beef broth or low-sodium canned broth [28 ounces]
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 medium carrots, peeled and cut into ¼-inch rounds
• 2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into ¾-inch cubes
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• pepper to taste

1. Combine the flour and pepper in a medium bowl, add the beef, and toss to coat well. Heat 3 teaspoons of the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the beef to the pot a few pieces at a time. Cook, turning the beef when browned on the bottom, until pieces are browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add more oil as needed between batches.
2. Remove the last batch of beef from the pot and add the vinegar and wine. Cook over medium-high heat, scraping the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Put the beef back in the pot. Add the broth and bay leaves. Bring to a slow simmer.
3. Cover and cook, skimming the broth from time to time, until the beef is tender, about 1-½ hours. Add the onion and carrots and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the potatoes and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes more. Season with the salt and pepper. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Ladle into four bowls and serve.

After getting a bunch of links in tabs in Safari and running this script:

set link_list to {}
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Safari"
        set winCount to count of windows
        set link_list to link_list & "<dl>
"
        repeat with i from 1 to winCount
            set tabCount to count of radio buttons of window i
            repeat with j from 1 to tabCount
                click radio button j of window i
                set theUrl to value of text field 1 of group 1 ¬
                    of splitter group 1 of window i as string
                set theTitle to name of window i as string
                set link_list to link_list & (" <dt>
        <a href="" & theUrl & "" title="" & theTitle & "">" & theTitle & "</a>
    </dt>
    <dd>
        
    </dd>
") as string
            end repeat
            set link_list to link_list & ""
        end repeat
        set link_list to link_list & "</dl>"
    end tell
end tell
set old_delim to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
set link_list to link_list as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to old_delim
set the clipboard to link_list
tell application "Safari"
    activate
    display dialog "The tab definition list is on the clipboard." ¬
        buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell

I went and copied the first paragraph of each article into the corresponding <code><dd></code> and ended up with this:

Yahoo! News – Bush Ancestor’s Bank Seized by Gov’t

President Bush’s grandfather was a director of a bank seized by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist who helped bankroll Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, government documents show.

A conservative’s review of Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars”

I must say that only once before in my life have I ever felt as utterly shocked as I am at this moment. The time before was when I first realized that my boss at the time, Bill Sizemore, was greedy and dishonest. The foundations of my universe shook. What has utterly shocked me today is Al Franken’s latest book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.”

Windows iTunes sparks mixed reactions | CNET News.com

A large number of Windows users have jumped at the chance to try Apple Computer’s iTunes jukebox software — and reactions are ranging from unabashed praise to complaints of bugs.

3D Border Demo 2 by Chris Hester 16 Oct 2003

If you liked my recent 3D Border Demo then take a look at my new improved version. I’ve created a picture of a house using nothing more than stylesheets and borders. Absolutely no images.

United Press International: Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor

Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait — sometimes for months — to see doctors.

PressThink: What’s Radical About the Weblog Form in Journalism?

These ten things, for starters. Got others? Hit the comment button.

Wired News: Moms Battle Genetic Engineering

A group of New Zealand mothers led by a former pop star have launched a provocative billboard campaign to protest their government’s decision to allow agricultural genetic engineering. The billboard ads feature a four-breasted woman attached to a milking machine.

Plastic: World Economy Addicted To U.S. Consumer Spending

As signs accumulate that the U.S. economic recovery is gaining momentum, relief is palpable across the globe. That’s because the United States remains the engine of the world economy as a whole. But many economists believe that excessive reliance on America is the biggest problem facing the world economy today. As former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers once put it, “The world economy is flying on one engine.” And a plane that flies on one engine is a lot more likely to crash,” NH4 observes.

Adrants Steve Hall’s Advertising Weblog including, internet marketing and online advertising with news, commentary, and opinion.

Pamela Anderson has joined the ranks of celebrities who are urging the public to boycott KFC because of the supposedly uncivilized manner in which the handle breasts… um… chicken. Anderson says, “If people knew how KFC treats chickens, they’d never eat another drumstick.” Maybe she meant breasts but that’s besides the point because this article is supposed to be about breasts… I mean chicken, not breasts. Hard to concentrate here.

NPR : The Ombudsman at National Public Radio

On October 9, Terry Gross, longtime host of NPR’s Fresh Air aired her interview with populist political talk show host Bill O’Reilly. The e-mails and phone calls of outrage are still arriving.

Breakfast was two low-fat sweet rolls and a glass of orange juice.



<ins datetime="2003-10-18T18:54:00-05:00">Lunch was a hand full of peanuts. Dinner was stir-fried broccoli on rice noodles and dessert was a Double D Pale Ale.</ins>

I got this idea reading <a href="http://www.kryogenix.org/days/553.html" title="The tyranny of tabbed browsing - as days pass by">another blog</a>, but thought it was interesting enough to try myself. Here are the tabs I have pending, right now:

Apple – iTunes – Smart Playlists

A page listing some creative things to do with Smart Playlists in iTunes.

Fool.com: Apple [Post of the Day] October 17, 2003

A selected post from the Motley Fool message board from a guy who makes a plausible case for the Windows iPod/iTunes/iTMS being a Trojan horse.

Plastic: 100 Books To Read Before You Die

The discussion at Plastic about the Guardian Observer’s list of the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time.

Wired News: ITunes, Now for the Rest of Us

Wired’s coverage of the release of iTunes for Windows.

Plastic: But Mom, The Teacher Sucked Out My Brain!

A Plastic discussion about a Dallas Observer article that posits that some public education facilities may actually make kids dumber.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Purple frog delights scientists

A BBC story about… a purple frog.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Odd mishaps cause computer grief

The BBC’s top ten computer disasters.

Q&A: Choosing a Digital Music Service for Windows Users

Microsoft FUD about Apple’s iTunes Music Store for Windows.

RadTech | Products | Ice Creme

A company that makes a product specifically for removing the scratches from your iPod.

the typewriter-keyboard conversion

A guy explains how to convert a typewriter into a computer keyboard.

RSS Readers: Bringing the World to Your Desktop

A review of six RSS readers for Windows.

Question for Free-Market Libertarians (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

An interesting point about some people’s contradictory opinions.

Take two people, the homeless man pushing a cart in San Francisco, and the rich corporate mogul flying around the world in his jet. Now, arguendo, let’s grant the premise that the homeless man is homeless because he’s a worthless grunt who doesn’t contribute to society, and the rich man is rich because the market has determined he’s worthwhile. The homeless man shouldn’t get money from the state, because that would make him dependent and even less likely to seek out work. But what about their children? Rich man’s son will live in luxury his entire [life] without working a day. It’s pushing it to say that this was OK for his father, but can you truly say it’s fair because the market is rewarding him for choosing excellent parents?

I would think that libertarians would want a 100% inheritance tax, so everyone got a (more) equal start. But as far as I can tell, they don’t. Can anyone explain why?

All Published Appellate Opinions From State Available Free on Court’s
Web Site

An article from the Metropolitan News-Enterprise announcing that all of the appellate opinions published in California since it became a state in 1850 are now available online without charge at the state courts’ website.

Zipf’s Law, Benford’s Law

An article about some unexpected properties of numbers.

Breakfast this morning was again a glass of orange juice.



<ins datetime="2003-10-17T12:58:00-05:00">I rode the shuttle over to the Hub for lunch with the gang from the office today. I had a bowl of stir-fried tofu with green beens and onions on chow mien, a bowl of hot and sour soup, and a small <a href="http://www.sierramist.com/" title="Sierra Mist">Sierra Mist</a>. We walked back by way of the Pollock Commons telecommunications closet.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-10-18T09:58:00-05:00">There is no football game this weekend, so Gretchen and I felt safe going into town and having dinner at <a href="http://www.ottospubandbrewery.com/index.html" title="Otto's Pub &amp; Brewery">Otto&rsquo;s</a>. We each had a Caesar salad and 1&frac12; beers. We also got our growler refilled with Otto&rsquo;s Double D Pale Ale.</ins>

<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/sungila-and-g.jpg" alt="Gretchen riding horseback on Sungila in the woods on an autumn day." />



Gretchen went horseback riding with some friends this past weekend. One of them took this shot of her on her horse Sungila and e-mailed it to us.

Breakfast this morning was a glass of orange juice.



<ins datetime="2003-10-16T12:54:00-05:00">Oh&hellip; My&hellip; Gawd! I just walked four miles at 122 beats per minute &mdash; when I started out walking at lunch I could barely do 109 BPM &mdash; that translates to almost four miles an hour. Now I am going to savor my well-earned granola bar.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-10-17T09:30:00-05:00">Gretchen and I feasted on Broiled Haddock, left over baked beans, potatoes au gratin, and a bottle of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Gretchen&rsquo;s favorite wine</a>.</ins>

It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. The tailor does not attempt to make his own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a tailor. The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the other, but employs those different artificers. All of them find it for their interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they have some advantage over their neighbours, and to purchase with a part of its produce, or what is the same thing, with the price of a part of it, whatever else they have occasion for.

Smith, A. (1776), The Wealth of Nations. Retrieved September 4, 2002, from www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/smith/wealth/wealbk04.