ne(one)piphany

If anyone’s curious, yes, they do taste good! Very sharp and gingery if bitten into, or mildly spicy and reminiscent of ginger ale when sucked on.

• via Loli, a series of bizarre flash animations, supposedly concept ads for Panasonic:
  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

(update 2003/03/19: the original links went stale so I’ve repointed them)

Mission accomplished! 10 yuppie markets, 3 drug stores, 1 book store and 1 Safeway later…

When all else fails, thank heaven… for 7-11, of all places — and just across from work, too! The inventory was untouched, of course, and the clerk looked at me as if I had grown three heads (“Ginger,” she said, shaking her head. “I think I like that in teriyaki.”). So I rescued the entire stock from the philistines, display box included; some for myself, and some as “thank you” gifts for my diligent operatives. Let those who appreciate the joy of ginger be the ones to hoard it!

Anyways, I feel like I just snapped a picture of Bigfoot. Yay!

And to continue the joyfest a bit: if it wasn’t obvious above, apparently my camera has decided to work for me, for this once at least.

(Ah, see? Dead again!)

Had correspondents on the search for Ginger Altoids all day yesterday, with absolutely no success. Am beginning to wonder whether this is all an elaborately constructed hoax, but no: I certainly held a tin in my hands on Friday, and even sampled a mint. Suggestions were helpfully offered but sadly misleading… We struck out at Trader Joe’s, where some on the web had reported success, and an enthusiastic tip that the Mercer Larry’s had them as of 4 p.m. on Saturday seems to have been in error (Eggy: “The lady there looked at me as if she had never heard of them” — like Keyser Soze, gone without a trace).

Have a few more yuppie market prospects to check out before I’ll be willing to concede defeat; alternately, if anyone has a lead on where they might be ordered online, that just might do as well. At this point, any word merely corroborating their existence would be a comfort!

DVD news, in short: Disney will be releasing Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky Laputa in one- and two-disc special editions, all in April. Both original and dubbed soundtracks will be included, as well as as-yet-unspecified special features. More than I had hoped for! Also, Dreamworks will release the original Japanese version of Ring on the same day that last year’s American remake arrives on DVD.

Hear that? That’s the sound of a lot of tense movie fans sighing in relief.

• via The Seattle Times, six sushi restaurants in the Seattle area for sushi lovers. I’ve only been to Shiki, which tops the list and was sublime. No doubt the rest will be attacked in short order!
• from jimfl, via comments, Kitty-chan sausages.
• Adorable! Obviously, the web needs more baby pictures.

Ginger Altoids! Why wasn’t I informed?

How long does it take to get used to the taste of Nutrasweet? I thought it would never happen, but it turns out the answer is… about two weeks. Diet Vanilla Coke seems ideal for the conversion, the sweetness of the “vanilla” flavoring nicely opposing the artifically tart aftertaste of aspartame. I don’t need that anymore, either! A month in and I even like the taste of Diet Pepsi.

Last Friday, over a fabulous Korean lunch, Eglantine and I dissolved the hated sugar avoidance pact. It wasn’t having the desired effect of good health, and the danger of cold turkey was the possibility of catastrophic relapse. I was good, though, and didn’t completely fall off the wagon until yesterday, when a coworker brought TWO POUNDS of Skittles (among other treats) into work.

Skittles were my childhood vice. You can guess the rest.

After a month without candy, only a little bit can go a long way towards making one feel queasy, and I had more than a little! But there was one good outcome: I’m not going to have any desire to eat candy for at least another month, and likely more. Heh.

One other thing: Blue Sour Starburst “candies” are among the most horrible things I’ve ever tasted. If I wanted something to remind me of Beefaroni (and I can’t say that I do), I’d buy Chef Boyardee.

Speaking of odd taste associations, the reason I stopped drinking Diet Vanilla Coke was that it was starting to taste like cucmber(!) to me.

• via Vince, new Get Your War On strips.
• via Geegaw, a new Waggish featuring a fascinating two-dimensional latin palindrome.
• Apparently Kevin Smith has a grudge against Reese Witherspoon too! Of course, his is grounded in reality, but that doesn’t make my anguish less painful, does it? Does it?

Learned to shuck oysters last night! The occasion: a fabulously decandent dinner party hosted by OG, with Rav in tow to complete the oyster-head trifecta. Between the three of us, we polished off roughly three dozen raw Kushi and Quilcene oysters, accompanied by homemade ponzu, oroshi and chopped spring onions. Wine and improvised bruschetta completed the menu — a heavenly feast, worthy of poetry!

Shucking is rather difficult for a beginner (especially the Quilcenes, tough little guys!) and we didn’t have the proper knives for the job, so there were a few sore muscles and blade-related close calls. Overall, though, it was loads of fun, and the food! The food was worth every effort!

I would have taken some absolutely luscious photographs, but it appears that my digital camera has given up the ghost. Alas!

• How to shuck an oyster.
• Oyster-related art, by Manet, Sargent, Warhol.
• A guide to oyster varieties, from CuisineNet.

I have a grudge against Reese Witherspoon. She had the audacity to appear in a dream (as my nemesis, a rival gang leader), in which each of our gangs was trying to nick fighter planes from the US Air Force. Big Air Force, plenty of planes to go around, right? But no! Reese, that conniving witch, played dirty and not only tricked us out of three stealth bombers but got me and my crew arrested and thrown in the clink! Meanwhile, she’s undetectable by radar!

And to think, I actually liked The Importance of Being Earnest! Ingrate.

Happy birthdays to (today!) cindy, to (tomorrow!) janjan, and to (Sunday!) sonya! Happy Happy!

Tonight, in addition to work and yummy Thai food, DDR Max (very fun!), a hot bath at last (divine!), and some frightening links:

• More than you ever wanted (or needed) to know about how maraschino cherries are made. That certainly puts a damper on my desire to practice knot-tying.
• via Daintily Dirty, a frightening assortment of prayer panties.

Aeromouse!

After all that, it turns out that I actually can tie a maraschino cherry stem into a knot with my tongue!

I dreamed last night that Andrew Lloyd Webber asked me (oddly, in the aisles of a hardware store) if I would rewrite the entire libretto of Sunset Boulevard. I wonder: if I hadn’t woken up shortly thereafter, would I have had the chutzpah to tell him that it wouldn’t nearly be enough to save that show?

Add one more item to the fitness regimen: Finally bought DDR Max and two “Dance Pad Revolution 2” (“Wow! Lights-up!”) controllers. Haven’t yet had the opportunity to play but the anticipation is building up. Wishing I had a Dreamcast so that I can dance to my favorites (e.g. “Boys” and “Butterfly,” among others), but 65+ songs sounds fabulously promising!

A long way off yet to wowing the aisles at Gameworks, but maybe someday…!

It’s only Saturday night, but I’ve already seen four movies this weekend. Started off with Donnie Darko, which Eglantine has been recommending for months, and can happily report that it was fantastic, at once totally disturbing and very funny. Last year’s The Importance of Being Earnest was utter fluff, but incredibly entertaining in its fluffiness (of course, I’m a complete sucker for costume romantic comedies). Insomnia the remake didn’t quite measure up to Insomnia the original, but that might have been because I saw the original first. At any rate, I far preferred the bleaker, redemptionless ending of the older film.

All that was yesterday! Today was totally about eye candy, with Queen of the Damned (not that there’s anything wrong with eye candy!). However: Stuart Townsend may be pretty beyond words, but good lord was Viggo such a better choice for Aragorn!

The tragic list of things that contain processed sugar: Sririacha chili sauce. Salada senbei crackers. Giant Tomato Pretz. Haagen-dazs mango sorbet. In fact, seemingly anything containing mango, or (as discovered way back) cranberries.

Lapses so far include: one (Canadian) Smartie. one dollop of Russian dressing on a salad. a bite-sized piece of muffin that I had thought was a bite-sized piece of bagel.

Still feeling good about everything, except when I’m dragged into places like Cold Stone, cruel torture indeed! Didn’t realize how strong it was, this olfactory idea of sweetness, until it became taboo.

via The Seattle Times: “Beatles Tapes, Stolen in ’70s, Said Found”

droooool…

trackjack is blogging again! Yay!

Oh no! Claudia sends along the news that oolong the bunny has passed away… The last set of photos (dated today, 1/8) is just too sad for words. (;_;)

Is there anyone who still remembers when Russell Crowe was the best actor you’ve never heard of?

Returned to work after two blissful weeks of vacation, and am suddenly stressed out, behind schedule, and out of time all over again. It’s just like remembering how to ride a bicycle, skinned knees and all.

Yesterday’s Manos experiment is but a faded memory now, though in idle moments, an imagined kazoo choir rendition of the Torgo theme starts rampaging through my consciousness. I suspect the other participants have their own scars to deal with.

Outsider opinions range from terrible to worse, but all very vocal… just from today, one-liners from sugs: “It gives you a true benchmark for declaring movies to be bad…” and chaos: “Yes, I appreciate this opportunity to have the desire to claw my eyes out.”

For those who fall into a similar trap, may I suggest The Two Towers as a palate cleanser? That’s what we resorted to.

• via Eglantine, a wonderful gallery by Thomas Hudson Reeve, a photographer who constructs origami pinhole cameras out of photographic paper (hence, the photo is the camera).
• Mr. Nice dances!

Have had the joy of life sucked out of me by Manos, the Hands of Fate. Will return when hands stop shaking.

Happy new year!

One year from now, I would like to be able to say the following things:

Looking at Geegaw today makes me want desperately to add a complete site redesign to that list. Someday I’ll be pretty, oh yes I will!

ne(one)piphany’s birthday and the new year are so close together (1/1 vs 1/19) that I will delay any dwelling on 2002 to that date, and keep my thoughts focused for now on the future. I hope that this year finds everyone happier, healthier and wiser than the last!

Three days now into avoiding processed sugars, and feel great so far. Have been eating an extraordinary number of fruits: asian pears, clementines, persimmons… Finding that cravings have been minimal, so I think I can do this; granted, the final verdict will have to come after I’ve left the land of home cooking.

Further explorations have uncovered: Viagra wall clock (with blue overlay to indicate “expiration” of effect), Viagra stopwatch, Viagra desk pens — recurring themes abound! — also, two squeezy hearts, advertising different medications.

Also visited the dusty graveyard of schlocky fantasy in the basement for easy reading fodder, and am now determined to ship the whole kit and kaboodle to Seattle at the earliest opportunity. For now, though, a dozen volumes or so go into the luggage (as well as a copy of Haroun and the Sea of Stories). Somehow this has all made me serenely happy!