Month: October 2003

Aztec Chocolate

looky

1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup boiling water
ground pepper or chilies to taste

courtesy of “the Field Museum“

Grate the unsweetened chocolate into a bowl and cover it with a little of the boiling water. Mash the mixture into a paste. Add the rest of the water and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer until frothy. You could also use a molinillo or blender (on high speed) to beat the mixture as well. Add the pepper or chilies to give the drink a little kick.

The chocolate does not totally dissolve in the water using this technique. Tiny particles of chocolate will float in the water, and you will be able to taste the grittiness in the drink. For a more authentic drink, allow the chocolate to cool and beat it into a froth just before you drink it.

Here’s another one from Firey Foods. Good article!

Amber Alert and Necromancy

looky

Have you ever heard an Amber Alert?

It’s California’s system to track recently-abducted children. I had seen the electronic billboards on the freeway but hadn’t heard the bulletins on the radio until recently. The billboards will flash descriptions of the victim and the suspected abductor’s car.

The radio system is much much scarier, and I don’t mean in terms of implications to civil rights. I mean it actually sounds frightening- The standard Emergency Alert System signal breaks into the programming, and a sort of staticky siren starts playing in the background. A tinny recording of an announcer, usually a female dispatcher, dispassionately intones the description of the abducted child and their abductor, and the abductor’s car. She sounds like her brain has been scooped out like a custard and replaced with Borg.

It sort of reminds me of the recording in 12 Monkeys– after Cole (Bruce Willis)’s disastrous and confusing trip into the past, the scientists piece together a voice mail by assembling bit by bit a recording made just prior to the end of human civilization-

“I can’t do any more. I have to go now. Have a merry Christmas!”

It is a strange, manic voice… a voice of someone long dead of the ghastly plague that killed almost everyone on earth.

Listening to dead people speak gives me chills. Maybe I’m not alone; isn’t one of the many things explictly forbidden by the bible speaking/listening to the dead?

It also reminds me of the joyful expression on the face of the previous captain of the Event Horizon– he has died in a very gruesome and perverse way, and in the recording he stares at the camera with glee, after having pulled out his own eyes. He shows the eyeballs to the viewer like a child holding out a bug he’s found on the sidewalk.

Fire Fire Burning Bright

looky

We had a fire in our building today. The alarms went off, and we all filed out of the office and down the stairs to the parking lot. It was like elementary school.

All we knew was it was in the parking garage… everyone sat around and fretted that their car was in flames. Or full of water from a fire hose. The smell of burning plastic was very strong.

After a certain point our COO Julie found shac, who is our IT person, and led him back into the “fire” to shut down all the servers. He grumbled “I hope they remember this when bonus time comes around- running back into the fire…”

As it turned out it was a bunch of cube walls stored in the very bottom of the garage. From what I can tell no cars were damaged and there were no injuries.

very loud alarm
I think it is not a drill
I smell plastic burn

evacuated
julie fetches shacolby
back to the fire

we wait on the lawn
shac has shut down the machines
someone’s car is burnt

Boredcast Message from ‘tom’: Tue Oct 21 17:21:17 2003

disco inferno
their office burnt to the ground
should have built with zinc