There are too many Drumettes in Buffalo Wings

I think that I usually wind up with more drumettes than flats when I order wings, and I prefer the flats. I think that this is because some people ask for just flats because they prefer them. When the kitchen accommodates them the rest of us get less flats. It is for this reason that I think it is wrong to ask for just flats. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to think wings should be delivered uncut to the diner.

I also have a problem with the way blue cheese is served. It should be served in a shallow bowl with a large enough opening that you can properly dredge the wing in it. This is especially true for the flats which are more difficult. 

My Reading Glasses

I realized yesterday that even though I really like wearing my reading glasses when I get to work, I never look forward to wearing them before I get to my office. I should note that I keep them at work, and that while at work I either don't wear glasses or wear my reading glasses and that I normally wear glasses as well for seeing far away. Another oddity is that if I want to see something better that is very close, I actually take my reading glasses off. I think my reading glasses are best for seeing things a couple feet away or so.

I may make this a series on my reading glasses or perhaps just my glasses in general, as the topic seems quite rich.

Science Rant

Scientific knowledge is sometimes used to demonstrate that we are just a collection of chemical reactions. When we feel pain it is really just that certain neurons are firing, and the like. The study of physical systems has lead many to conclude that that is all we are. Awareness, Consciousness, experience...what are those? The thought process goes something like this: Consciousness cannot be measured, or at least not as an object in the physical world, and so therefore it is not real. Others might say they can measure consciousness. But they're likely referring to physical correlates to consciousness in a brain, not consciousness itself. Apparently not being able to distinguish the difference between the two.

But doesn't science only exist in our minds? Does it then exist as a bunch of chemical processes there? When we speak of Science, are we speaking of chemical processes inside people's brains? If there were no experience, awareness, whatever you want to call it, would there be any science? Any chemical processes? Any physical laws? Since such constructs only exist in a mind. Perhaps you'll say, those chemical processes would still exist, there would just be no one there to be aware of them. As in, if a tree falls in the woods and nobody's there does it make a sound? Maybe so, but if there was no mind, anywhere, there would be no one in that universe to even ask about physical laws, so how could you even say they were there or not? And what are physical laws with no mind to understand what that even means?

Now then some people, who except that awareness is real and not insignificant, might say that a particular chemical process in my brain might cause me to feel pain. I prefer to say that it's correlated with my feeling pain, since without a mind to understand what chemical processes even are, such a statement would not not even exist. Any concept, including a statement, only exists in a mind. There could be no discussion, no anything, without it. So how then can you say that a chemical process "causes" the mind to sense something?

White Man Takes Supper at Sri Lankan Restaurant in Queens

He ordered the cutlets and what they called devil Chicken. When ordering, he remarked to the waitress that the cutlets were like fish balls in order to show he was familiar with the cuisine. She acknowledged that, though he didn't think she was thrilled by his comparison. When they came to the table they were flattened and looked more like fish cakes. Overall, he was pleased with them and the red sauce accompaniment. They were tasty, although they could've been warmer in the middle, he noted to himself. When ordering the main course, the devil chicken, the waitress inquired as to the spice level. White man said, don't hold back, make it spicy. To which the waitress said, it will be extremely spicy. White man said, "ok".

He would've ordered the devilled cuttlefish if they offered it. He might've ordered the devilled shrimp instead, but there was no price next to it. He wondered why they call it "devil" not "devilled". The devil chicken arrived. He was surprised by the chicken. Taking full bites of it, he found that it was not boneless. He wished he had a knife, but the fork and hands would suffice. He thought the chicken was tasty though. He also felt that the sauce was spicy, but certainly not extremely spicy. He thought to himself, why would someone go into a sri lankan restaurant alone, make it clear he knew about sri lankan food with the fish ball comment, and yet still be doubted when he asked for his food spicy? Alas, it was a little spicy.

The white man observed that slices of red onion were used, instead of chunks of the small shallot-like bombay red onion. He realized that those onions mustn't be easy to find, but that chunks of shallot would be an adequate substitute. But those are a lot of work to peel, he thought.

He deemed that there was a nice mixture of spices in the sauce, but that it was sweeter than he remembered it. It tasted somewhat like General Tso's chicken, they must be catering to american taste buds, he mused. Surely he likes general Tso's chicken, but that's not what he came for. He also thought, a lot of sauce, wish I had some rice, but then it'd be even more like general Tso's. But the worst offense to him was that there were sliced bell peppers in it instead of capsicum peppers. Maybe they can't find them here, but they could've used jalapenos or the like, he thought. He wasn't happy with the presence of tomatoes either. He believes that Asian cuisines do not know how to handle the tomato, and that it should not be in a devilled dish. And he was saddened, but certainly not surprised, to realize that it was not cooked with coconut oil.

All in all, it was Ok, but he wasn't wowed. "Bell peppers!", he sighed.

More About Summer

I've given it a lot of thought and I have an idea for a new calendar. The ancient Romans only had 10 months. The period after what is now December, but before March was not part of any month. Similarly, I'm thinking that Summer should begin on Memorial day, with the middle of summer on the solstice (of course), and it being essentially over once Bastille day has passed. Yet it should remain technically summer throughout July. After July comes the month of August, which is not part of any season, but simply August. Fall begins on the first day of September.

Listen to Your Feet

I don't know much about my feet, but I've always had a predilection for crossing my little toes. I take a certain pride in this activity as I can do it without resorting to assistance from my hands. For example, I can generally cross them even if they happen to be in shoes at the time, and this activity can be transparent to an observer. That is, it can be performed in a clandestine manner. My toes seem to want to be arranged that way. To be more precise the little toe is raised, and the second littlest toe goes underneath it. This is the case for both feet. I can't say that one foot prefers it over the other.

I recently became aware that my feet may be telling me something. You see, bunions may run in my family. This crossing of little toes may be a reaction to a natural tendency for my toes to want to tilt to the outside as in one prone towards bunions. It seems though that the little toe does not want to bend to the outside so my other toes when they tilt to the outside hit a bit of a wall there. And what can happen then may not be good. The second largest toe may find itself lifted above the big toe. This can lead to corn formation on the second largest toe for those prone towards bunions, which isn't good.

A Fried Egg with Watery Egg Whites

I bought some eggs the other day. I went to fry one of them and the white ran and separated into two parts. The inner part was more solid and formed a very distinct circle around the yolk. The outer portion spread out but didn't set up or ever become solid or crisp up. I tried another one. Same thing. I ate the latter. It didn't taste off, but the inner part of the white was mushy and the outer part was even worse. I think I'm gonna throw the rest of them out. I've never seen eggs like this. I looked a bit on the internet. Maybe they had been frozen at one point, I don't know. The other food in the fridge isn't frozen. If they were frozen they must have been frozen before I bought them. The pan was plenty hot.

Do Warmer Temperatures Cause Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels?

Some people, notably Al Gore, show the correlation between CO2 levels and the temperature of the atmosphere near the earth's surface, and argue that the CO2 we're putting into the atmosphere will cause that temperature to go up. Of course, there's the old axiom that correlation does not imply causation. It could also be that the increase in CO2 levels doesn't cause the warm up but instead is a consequence of the warm up. If so, the increasing CO2 levels occurring now would not a priori be expected to correlate with warmer temperatures.

Plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere with photosynthesis, but also put it back with respiration. If there are more plants could it be that the CO2 levels would be higher due to their respiration, or some other mechanism? For instance, what about animals and small non-photosynthetic organisms like bacteria? If the earth is warmer, won't there be more animals and bacteria breathing and putting CO2 into the atmosphere? Could mechanisms like this account for higher CO2 levels when the earth is warm? If so, the higher CO2 levels would be a consequence of warmer temperatures, not the cause of them.

Thoughts on Properly Spicing Up V-8

I think that V-8 would be better if it had some garlic juice in it. I have found that V-8 is helped by Sriracha. First, it adds spiciness without too much vinegar. It also has a nice garlic flavor. For my tolerance level I find that most hot sauces are far more vinegary (and salty) than they are hot. Tabasco being the most obvious example. I do like Tabasco, but if I put enough in to make V-8 spicy enough it would be too vinegary. I find that an ample portion of Sriracha and a splash of Cholula chili garlic hot sauce is pretty good. That's what I'm drinking right now in fact. A nice spicy chili powder can also help. I had some African bird's eye chili powder  that I procured from the dual Specialty store, which was really nice. It's especially good if you have a large bottle of V-8 (like the ones featured in my "Making Tap Water Taste Good" entry of 5 Oct) and you put it in that and shake it around. The next day the powder has had a chance to marry with the V-8. That was probably some of the most delicious V-8 I've ever had. I've gotta pick up some more of that...

The Motion of the Minute Hand

If I look at the minute hand of a clock I generally cannot see it move, but I can be pretty sure it is moving, especially if it's reading the right time. The rate at which the minute hand moves is 360 degrees/hour, or a degree every 10 seconds. It seems what I detect is instantaneous motion when my mind determines if something is moving or not. I'm not referring to hands that move in steps, but those that move continuously. I don't know enough about clocks to know if any hands move continuously, or if they all move in steps, just more of them. But I bet that on some level, if I don't see the steps, that they can be approximated as moving continuously. Of course, the larger the clock, and the closer I am to it, the more likely I'll be able to see that the hands are moving.

There's this concept of an adiabatic change, which as I understand it, is that the rate at which something changes which affects a system is slow compared to the rate at which the parameters that describe the system change. When that happens, the 'something' that changes does not increase the disorder of the system. It's like kicking a car versus pushing it. If you kick a car hard enough you dent it and it moves, if you just push it, it just moves.

I wonder if this concept of adiabaticity can be extended to a clock. In the sense that, I can see things changing around me, but I can't see the minute hand changing. So, the rate at which the minute hand changes is slow compared to the changes in the world on the scale that I can perceive them. What does this say about the perception of time? Is this minute hand phenomenon an indication of what is adiabatic for a human? The second hand moves fast enough to easily be seen, and the hour hand is clearly too slow, but the minute hand is rather tantalizing, because its motion seems like it might be close to the edge of perceptibility, on the cusp of subjective adiabaticity.

I wonder if with practice, but without cheating, one could see the motion of a particular minute hand where initially one couldn't. You might think that this could be a good exercise at work for example, but I think it would tend to make the day pass more slowly. Since if you can perceive the same rate of movement on a shorter time scale, then you'll be more aware of time's passage. I think this is because the perception of duration is related to the awareness of the passage of time. Like the mind's clock only adds successive intervals up, counting them, but not multiplying each successive interval by the actual duration of each. I guess that's why when I wake up, it seems like little time has passed since I fell asleep. At least in part this is perhaps why I'm a night owl, since I intuitively realize that the earlier I get to sleep the sooner it will be before I have to get up.

Making Tap Water Taste Good

When my tap water comes out of the sink it doesn't taste very good. If I put it in a bottle and put it in the fridge it tastes better, but mainly just because it's cold. It still has an off flavor. The trick is not to put the cap on the bottle. After a day or so it tastes as good as bottled water to me. I guess what's happening is similar to the case with soda in my previous entry. There are dissolved gases in the tap water that make it taste bad. In the case of soda you want to keep the dissolved gases, but in the case of water, you want to get rid of them. Keeping the cap off let's them diffuse out of the water and into the fridge, where they are easily accommodated.

Three bottles of tap water in the fridge sans caps.

Keeping Soda from going Flat

If you're like me, you buy a bottle of soda, say a 2 liter, but you don't finish it for days, or maybe even weeks. But if you don't finish it quickly it will go flat. I have learned that this does not have to happen. If you squeeze the plastic bottle it came in so that there is little space for air remaining, the soda won't go flat.

It seems that it goes flat because the gas in the soda slowly escapes from the soda into the air inside the bottle. When the Carbon Dioxide in the air inside the bottle reaches the same pressure as inside the liquid, no more will be lost to the liquid. If you squeeze and deform the bottle so there is little room for air in it then less gas will be lost to the air to reach that pressure and the soda won't go flat. Every time you take some soda you'll have to squeeze the bottle some more. If you bring bottles back for deposit, you may get some strange looks.

A Little Bit of Birthday Freedom

I realized last week that strictly speaking, even if you're celebrating your birthday in the same time zone that you were born, a birthday doesn't always occur on the same date every year. Let's say I was born at 7 am on Aug 28th. It takes 365 days and 6 hours for the earth to go around the sun. On the next year, assuming it's not a leap year, the anniversary of my birth would be Aug 28th at 1 pm because it takes 6 hours more than 365 days to reach the position on the earth's orbit around the sun when I was born.

Now in a leap year after Feb 29th, the position of the earth with respect to the Sun for a given date and time is a 24 hours ahead of what it would've been if it wasn't a leap year. So, if I was born in 1959 and it's 1960 (a leap year), the anniversary of my birth occurs on Aug 27th at 1 pm, not Aug 28th at 1 pm. The next year (1961) it's Aug 27th at 7 pm, the year after that it's Aug 28th at 1 am, the year after that it's Aug 28 at 7 am, and then the pattern repeats. Since 2012 was a leap year, then in 2011 I had the same birthday I did in 1959 (Aug 27th at 7 am). 2013 is the year after a leap year, so this year my birthday was as in 1961, Aug 27th (at 7 pm).

Now say I was born on Aug 28th at 7 pm in 1961, the year after a leap year, then in 1962 my birthday would be Aug 29th (at 1 am), in 1963 it would be Aug 29th (at 7 am), and in 1964 (a leap year) it would be Aug 28th (at 1 pm). In 2013 it would be like 1962, Aug 29th (at 1 am).

If I was born Aug 28 at 7 pm in 1959, then in 1960 the anniversary of my birth would be Aug 28th at 1 am, the next year Aug 28th at 7 am, the next Aug 28th at 1 pm, and then back to Aug 28th at 7 pm. So, you're not always lucky enough to have more than one birthday, but on the other hand, this kind of birthday could be called a strong birthday.

Emergent Properties of my Car and their Effects on the Fluidity of Traffic Flow

My car is getting better gas mileage than it was a couple weeks ago, and it was already pretty good. Sometimes I think that it is self-organizing, like life. On the way to work today there was a lot of traffic, yet my overall gas mileage for the past two or three weeks still went up from 32.1 mpg to 32.2 mpg. I would've thought, if anything, that the traffic would have made it go down. Yet, I can't help but wonder if the traffic was a result of an emergent phenomenon in my car's engine which lowered its entropy, thereby increasing the entropy of the cars around me, resulting in traffic. Or it could be because of the construction delays caused by the work that's done on the eastbound lanes of the expressway on Friday during the Summer to piss off the people going to the Hamptons. However, I don't see why these two phenomena are necessarily independent of each other.

How Much to Cook a Veggie burger, Initial Impressions

A friend of mine who is vegetarian was speaking glowingly of the Boca burger. Not soon after I bought a box of them. I've had 3 so far. I just got the regular ones, I later learned I should have gotten the cheese ones. The first one I had with land o'lakes american, raw onion, jalapeno, and a slice of thick bacon, on a toasted english muffin with mayo on the bottom and ketchup on the top. I cooked the burger in the bacon fat in the cast iron skillet. Once I put the cheese on it I put the skillet in the oven to melt the cheese as is my way. I thought it had a nice meat-like texture. I don't know what possessed me to get veggie burgers, it was spur of the moment. I'm really not against the idea and they're pretty convenient. I was hoping they'd taste something like a felafel, which I like. I don't think it did, but it was OK nevertheless. I'm not really sure what it tasted like, but it was definitely decent. I did think it was a little dry though.

The next time I had the same fixins' but I put it on whole wheat toast. This one I didn't like. Initially I thought it was the bread, which I had just bought and wasn't familiar with this particular loaf. Though I was surprised that the bread could have such a dramatic effect. I also didn't cook it as much because I thought I may have overcooked the last one. Perhaps it wasn't as dry, and maybe it wasn't cooked enough. For some reason it tasted a lot like horseradish. I'm a fan of horseradish, but this flavor just wasn't good. I found the experience quite unsatisfying. I later tested the bread, making a kind of cheese sandwich with it, and it passed with flying colors. I can't see how it could be the bread. I told my friend about my experiences and asked if it was possible that it wasn't cooked enough. She said something like she couldn't imagine what they would be like if they were under-cooked, I forget the exact words. I'm not saying it was cold or frozen in the middle by the way.

The next time I had it on an english muffin with no bacon. I cooked the patty in olive oil, and I cooked it a lot, I thought it was good, just like the other time. If you like a kind of hockey puck type burger, it's not bad. And I admit I can enjoy a hockey puck burger. I guess the Boca burger should not be served medium rare. I also felt a bit better after I had one than I might expect to after a regular burger. I thought it still did taste a little of horseradish, but not in a bad way. My impression is then that it would be hard to cook it too much, and it's perfectly fine. And I'm glad that the bread I bought wasn't some crazy kind of super whole wheat bread that's inedible, though I think I'll stick to english muffins if I can. I know that the real test would be to cook it a lot and use the toasted bread, but we have to live in the real world. I also found myself thinking about putting tomato and lettuce on it, which is rare for a me.

The Parlour

I grew up in a house with a living room. I thought it was odd that the living room was like a museum. It had all the good furniture, and spending time in it was highly discouraged. That was for the family room. I guess I should feel fortunate that the furniture didn't have plastic slipcovers.

The only times we really used the living room were when guests came over. They would be entertained there.  OK, we did at times play some kind of game in there which involved a pillow because it was the largest space in the house. But it was highly discouraged, and I can't say I blame my parents for that.

I've joked about the name all my life. Apparently never tiring of the joke that the living room was for anything but living. Thanks to Bourdain I believe, I've recently become aware, though I may have known and forgotten previously, that such a room is more properly called a parlour. I imagine this comes from the french verb, parler, to speak, and it makes perfect sense. It's for welcoming and entertaining guests. To the modern ear that name sounds rather Victorian and old-fashioned, but it's accurate so why not use it? Why an ice cream parlour isn't called an ice cream living room I don't know.

Supermarket Options

I've never been to an Earthfare supermarket but I know it's not for me. I like a supermarket where you can get food from other planets.  And I also like a supermarket where you can get food chopped up, that's why I don't understand why people think Whole Foods is so great. At Key Foods, which is right across the street, there are no such restrictions.

I recently got a bottle of Gold's Hot horseradish there, and for all I know it's from Mercury. It looked pretty fresh though. But it could be, and I like that kind of uncertainty when I'm buying food. I had some in a bloody Mary. Now I bought some V-8 there for the bloody Marys too, and it's a liquid so I wonder how Whole Foods deals with that. I mean, the store's not big enough to sell Water (with a capital W). Now chickens and such, they're at least plausible, but I don't want the head or the feathers, or the intestines for that matter. I know it's better that way, but I live in an apartment and it's just not practical.

I wonder why they call it Key foods? The guy's name isn't Key, it's Dan, Dan's Key Foods they call it. I guess it has the foods that are Key. The shallots there didn't look very good last time, I bought onions instead. I'm starting to become a more savvy shopper. The onions were pretty fresh, they had juice coming out after you slice them. I would say they are pretty key, except they don't have bobolis and I don't understand why. It's a good product. The C-town with the identity crisis down the street has them. It's called Vitellio's now, and they give you your purchases in key food plastic bags. Another thing that's odd about that store is that the eggs are by the produce, not in the dairy section. Now, an egg, that's a good example of a whole food, I guess I wouldn't mind getting them at Whole Foods but I don't think it's worth a special trip.

Some Reasons for Developing the Moon

Ralph thought it was important for Alice to go to the moon, maybe he knew what he was talking about.  People think of the moon as a barren wasteland, but I can think of a few reasons why developing the moon might be a good idea. First, people are getting older. I think the elderly, and physically handicapped, would find life in 1/6 gravity a lot easier. It might prolong their lives too, and who knows by how much. This is potentially a practical solution to the problems associated with aging. And let's not forget about physical therapy.

Also, it would be interesting to do farming in 1/6 gravity. I wonder how plants and animals would grow. This could be a new frontier in gourmet and artisanal foods. Imagine for example marketing Swiss cheese made on the moon from milk from lunar dairy farms. You think Kobe beef cattle have an easy time of it now, imagine how tender they'd be if they were raised in low gravity. You could breed cattle, and other animals on the moon. The moon breeds would probably be much larger. How plants would respond to the low gravity and month long days would also be interesting.

With it's low gravity and spectacular views it would also be a great place to go on vacation.  Anyone who isn't that great at rock or mountain climbing, but would like to try it, could go there. People with a sensitivity to light could live on the dark side.

Why is the Summer Solstice the Beginning of Summer?

I don't think the beginning of summer occurs on the day of the summer solstice. Summer, is not an astronomical event, it pertains mostly to how warm the weather is. If you want to go by astronomy then the middle of summer should be on the summer solstice. But the thing is the highest temperatures lag the sun angle by some amount. This is mostly because it takes time for things to heat up, and to lose their heat. If it didn't, then the hottest day would be the summer solstice. Around these parts the highest temperatures lag the sun angle by about 5 weeks, so that the end of July is the warmest part of the year. So, that's midsummer. There are 3 months per season, so a month and a half on each side of the warmest days. That's 45 days. If July 25th is the middle of summer, that means that June 10th is the start of summer, and Sept 8th is the end of it.

So, the start of summer is about 12 days before the solstice, and the end of it is about the same amount before the equinox. There's also the sun angle to consider though, because the sun is stronger in June than in September, and what makes you feel warm is not just the ambient temperature but also the direct heating you receive from solar radiation. This would tilt the balance so that summer should begin and end  even earlier. It is for this reason that I think memorial day and labor day are perfectly suited for marking the beginning and end of summer.

It used to be that the Summer Solstice was considered the middle of Summer. Take Shakespeare's play, a Midsummer Night's Dream, which I believe takes place around the summer solstice. Why is the first day of summer considered to be the summer solstice then?  I don't know, but maybe it has to do with the fact that it's a distinct event that's closely linked to the warmest part of the year. And when did the first day of Summer become the Summer Solstice?  I don't know either, but I can't help but think it has something to do with the industrial revolution.

The American Disregard for Vinegar

I believe that vinegar is under appreciated in the U.S. There were these salt and vinegar potato chips I had from Ireland, or maybe it was the UK, don't think it matters much. The depth of the vinegar flavor was amazing. I also like malt vinegar on my fries.

Let's talk German food. There's a place near where I used to live that has the best potato salad. It has the perfect blend of vinegar and sugar, the quality control is great, and there's not a line out the door. Why not?? I once gave it to a German. This is a mayo based product, it's not the kind we call German around here, but he said it was German potato salad, good German potato salad. This isn't the only example of the German appreciation of vinegar, I'm sure the examples are countless. Take Sauerbraten and red cabbage for example.

The Thais also have this great dipping sauce that's basically vinegar and sugar water. By itself it's great, put a few sliced chiles in it and some club soda, and it'd make a great soft drink if you ask me. And then there's balsamic which I think is more than just vinegar, it's an expression of this great thing vinegar and sugar do together. But vinegar doesn't have to be 50 years old to be great.

The balance between sweet and sour really appeals to me. Some folks might call it tangy, or yin and yang. But not only is that great, but vinegar by itself is great, and vinegars are not all the same. Why doesn't America have some great vinegars? Cause pretty much most Americans think it's just vinegar. It's like they live in a fog.