kaiser is back

SimCity etched

knitcore — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:32:09 +0000

Back in 1992 (maybe '91), my parents bought me SimCity for the SNES. I used to wake up at around 5 AM every school day to get in a couple of hours of play. I think that went on for several weeks.

Needless to say, I was addicted. But I got to a point where I felt I'd mastered it, so I sold it to a family friend – that would've been around '93. I had a bit of regret from time to time for having sold it, so Asma bought for me three years ago as part of a birthday present.

I just opened the game yesterday. And as I'm putting the cartridge in, the theme song starts playing in my head. But what surprised me is that I actually had it right, even though I hadn't heard it in over fourteen years.

I'm wondering how many people have good long-term memory for music? It seems like it's one of those universal things, remembering fragments of a melody or an entire song. Probably because there's no memory to fudge? It's either clear or it isn't. A song is practically self-correcting, because it won't sound right without the right note placement. Unless your melody processor is off.

Anyway, I want to start dabbling in it again, along with the long backlog of a hundred other things that I should be doing. Maybe work my way up from SimCity 2000? Why is Apple still selling SimCity 4 for $60? It's pretty cheap for Windows now. Not fair.

Addendum: OMG! SimCity Societies! November!

cast iron makes me happy

knitcore — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:43:05 +0000

Yesterday, Asma and I went out with the family to pick/scavenge for persimmon on the UMD campus. Asma accidentally stumbled upon a solitary persimmon tree while walking to a class earlier in the week, and she and her parents were super excited. (Iranians are happy to find sour cherries, persimmon, and other edible knick-knacks. I think it would be the same as an American finding orange and apple trees in Africa? Actually, I don't know if there are universal culture things that Americans identify with or get excited over. There's so much American influence anywhere that I'm unpleasantly surprised to see and hear about things. Like thousands of KFC and McDonald's in China.)

Afterwards, we went to Ikea at Mona's insistence, and after a hot dog/frozen yogurt break, we started to look around. Our time was cut short, but before we had to leave Asma found a cast iron pan. For $8.

I was excited about it even though I'd never actually used one before. But it got me to think about breakfast the next day.

This morning I was prepping for breakfast. I gave the pan a water rinse, then put it on the stove over medium heat for a couple of minutes to evaporate some water. After turning the stove off, I passed by the pan again over 10 minutes later – it was still warm.

I was anxious to actually get food on there at that point, and I have to admit that it's an epiphany. Cast iron skillets are the most amazing piece of cookware I've ever used. Food just never stops sizzling after you get it on the pan, and the whole character of the final product is much livelier. And you can stick it in the oven! Pan pizza!

So today's breakfast consisted of sauteed and seasoned onions and mushroom, home fries (literally, fries made at home, not cubed potatoes), and scrambled eggs. And I think the most amazing thing about this is that you can make great fries with only 2–3 tablespoons of olive oil. I feel like you can crisp practically anything that isn't too thick. You don't need a deep fryer ever. Amazing.

I am so excited to make use of this thing. I might just have to channel my life goals into cooking.

I could also just be over-excited because the weather continues to be amazing.

Asma and I have been noticing that most outside foods are made unnecessarily rich. Is this just an American thing, or have restaurants across the world traditionally gone overboard with oils and cheese and sugar? It's not just because of the fries. We make pizza at least once a week, and we don't get anywhere close to using the amount of cheese that chains use, yet it never's lacking of it. The days we do put on a little more cheese than usual, it always feels so much richer, but it's still nothing like other pizzas. I think Ryan could attest to that.

Anyway, the other good finds yesterday were a $12 French press (compared to the $30 Bodum French presses that look to be the only other option at fine retailers across this country), and a sharp knife for $5 that we will hopefully take care of. We need to go back next weekend and see what other cheap and awesome kitchen items they have.

My dad is coming to town today for a conference. We were all supposed to go out to dinner tonight, but he missed his flight this morning, so that will be postponed until tomorrow or Tuesday. Poop.

And I end it with this: I will jog over 4 miles today, and it will be excellent. Jogging regularly has made a big difference in the amount of fat I'm losing. I've never experienced this before, and I haven't made any big or conscious shifts in my eating habits to make it happen (not that I'm eating unhealthy in general). I like it.

I love autumn. Boei.

prelude to autumn

knitcore — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:05:23 +0000

The weather is absolutely fantastic outside – 68°, sunny, low humidity, breezy. I want this every day of the year.

I wonder if I'll do anything with it today.

long live Israel

knitcore — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:37:47 +0000

Stupid Zionists.

post-Eudora

knitcore — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:48:20 +0000

As all of you probably don't know, my beloved email client, Eudora, moved to open source earlier this summer and will no long continue new development or support.

Apparently, Mozilla has picked up on it under a project called Penelope.

Maybe that's a good sign – I couldn't move to Eudora for Mac because I couldn't convert my Windows mail correctly (and all the special things attached to each message, like labels, wouldn't carry over), but since it's named after our budgie, it'll magically fix all the gripes I've had in trying to use a native program.

But it might be interesting to see if I can hold out and use it for another 10 years (on emulated software!). 20 years of using the same program has to be a record of some sort.

fever

knitcore — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:28:17 +0000

If I was ever sick for more than two days, I don't remember it. But somehow, I've managed to be sick for the last four.

Yes, Asma was sick last weekend, and I have been under a lot of stress at work, but it's not a new situation, because there have been a few other times in the last two years where Asma was sick and I was sick of doing TCC stuff.

Something bad is happening to me… I was talking to Hasan a night, and even he commented that I never get sick. Maybe it's old age. Lack of nutrients? A new effort to stay as vegetarian as possible? My legendary immune system is breaking down. So sad.

Friday night, I was on the sofa for over six hours. Trying to sleep, trying to watch tv, etc. At one point, I really, really wanted dessert. It took over 30 minutes before I could get myself to get dressed, but I walked a mile for a piece of tiramisu from la Madeleine.

I also had a fever.

As of yesterday I'm mostly better. Painful coughs every once in a while, itchy, runny nose. But I managed to jog 3.2 miles.

Last night (or this morning) I had a dream that I went to Target and was able to slide across their floors wearing socks. I did all these slick maneuvers, but had to rely a bit on running into walls to stop myself. It's almost similar to the built-in rollerskates kids have in their shoes, minus the obnoxiousness of it.

Our kids are never getting those.

toeiny

knitcore — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:41:32 +0000

I can't get enough of watching Mishti lying down on her favorite little pink blanket (like right now). She's also started sleeping in a tiny Tupperware container (which she fits snugly and perfectly in) we put in a week ago that doubles as her dust bath.

I'm so happy she's alive.