10.25.04
Posted in Restaurants at 10:33 am by James
I went to Central Market today, the first time in about 2 weeks. Turns out shortly after my haitus started, they changed the format of the sandwich bar. They changed the format from two sets of spreads and fixings with meat and cheeses in the middle to 3 sets of spreads and fixings with meat below. This seems good from an efficiency point of view: they can service more people in a shorter number of time. However, they slimmed down the available condiments. The cranberry spread and carmelized onions are no longer available. 
. During the summer they dropped picked onions from the list. The frequent CM shopper will recall that CM limited the type of fixings last year. (ie. avocade, roasted red peppers, squash, zucchini started to be an extra charge) So now my sandwich is reduced to a semi-mundane: bread, spread, meat, lettuce, tomato, onion. Some customers were complaining that they would prefer to see the meat and cheese on the table. I agree. Picking the sandwich meat is like asking for mystery meat. You dont really know what they have… So maybe on my next trip, I’ll write down a note and drop it in their suggestion box.
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10.17.04
Posted in Unfiled at 9:11 pm by James
Check out this article on msn.com about the book Bonjou Paresse. Its a french book about the virtues of laziness in corporate life. Its akin to the dilbert comics. The book got a mention in this sunday’s Houston Chronicle, so it must be causing a stir. The msn article has a good summary and some 10 rules for ….
Now I see my friend what my friend Tom was doing at work. It always suprises me that hes at work. Sometimes I think hes just chatting online all day…
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10.12.04
Posted in PL Research, Religion/Philosophy at 1:10 pm by James
Lazyiness pays off. Yesterday, my advisor Corky casually mentioned a Professor would be coming to Rice today. He casual asked if i wanted to meet with him, and I casually responded ok. Today i was busy working on my research. I checked my email at 2pm and found out that I was scheduled a appointment at 11:45 (without my knowledge… so much for casual). So I hurried home to eat lunch and then to school to make a presence. Turns out the visitor arrived late and the whole schedule was out of wack. So I didnt miss anything, didnt piss any one off, and i was actually basically on time for the guys presentation. And now I think it would matter even if i missed the presentation… not as formal as it was beginning to seem. Score 1 for casually late.
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10.02.04
Posted in Unfiled at 6:46 pm by James
Check out this comparison between getting (1) a cat, (2) a dog, (3) a baby, or (4) a graphics card. The winner is a cat! Pushing a cat on top was (1) cute, (2) doesnt smell bad, (3) eats bugs, (4) climbs screen doors, (5) chases tail, and (6) Buries own dung! The main downside was a cat’s lack of multiple rendering pipelines (used in graphics cards). Oh well, guess you cant win them all.
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10.01.04
Posted in health at 7:47 am by James
Okok, maybe i’m just reading the nytimes. Well here is a post on the effects of global warming on hurricanes. While they are not 100% certain, some global warming scientists predict an increase in either (a) the number and/or (b) the intensity of hurricanes. In particular they say that global warming translates into higher sea levels and higher humidity, which basically is fodder for hurricanes. I guess all that poor, greedy localized planning is finally biting countries. Florida has already been hit by 4 hurricanes. Hurricane Jeanne caused massive flodding that killed 1,500 people in Haiti.
I think its time to start thinking green.
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Posted in health at 7:33 am by James
I found this article on the nytimes about the Bird Flu in Thailand. Apparently its back and already in 4 provinces. I think the biggest worry is that the virus may aquire human influenza genetic material and make it contagious by humans. The article cites the mutation that occured in hong kong:
Hong Kong flu that killed several million people worldwide in 1968, the hemagglutinin protein was unchanged from avian influenza hemagglutinin proteins, but some of the other genetic segments had absorbed human influenza genetic material.
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