I believe I would have reacted similarly when I was a kid, but perhaps Wii need to evaluate our society.... This makes me think that Nintendo has figured out a way to deliver crystal meth via televisions and hand-held controllers.

50 kids happy to get a Nintendo Wii for Christmas - watch more gamer videos

Leslie Hall, post 2

Ok, so one post doesn't do this gal enough justice. I also wanted to link to her exhibition of awesome gem sweaters. Make sure to read the captions for each sweater.

I think this Leslie Hall is going places...

Leslie Hall and the LYs

This is an opening line for a song that I can get into, "On the way to the club we pass by a Dairy Queen...". This is a pretty awesome group thats strutting their IA stuff, and I like it. Perhaps Ames IA will be the next grassroots music nexus like Seatle in the 90s.




Its strange, because I heard about this group from a guy from philly that went to madison for a show where they opened. Bizarre.

Open letter to Ted Turner

Re: NE Tetanka?

Ted Turner just opened up a restarant here in Philly where he is selling, gasp, Bison. Actually I've heard that bison is pretty good to eat, very lean, that isn't the problem. My concern for you, Ted Turner, is whether your intentions with my fair state are genuine. If you don't know, Ted has been buying up many ranch lands across the great plains, he now owns over 2 million acres, making him the largest land owner in the US. These properties are scattered all over the plains states, but he is now the single largest landowner in Nebraska and the united states of a.

This land grab of Ted's has really rilled up the feathers of the local ranchers of Cherry county in Nebraska (a large county in nebraska known mostly for the infamous butt bandit, the subject of my next expose), as he has been overpaying for the land and making it difficult for local farmers to expand their own operations. Boo hoo, right? But I think perhaps he has a different agenda. Is it coincidental that these ranch lands overlap with the Ogalala Aquifer, the largest single pool of groundwater in the country? I think ole Ted may, and I may be going out on a bit of a limb here, be part of some sort of shadowy society of overlords.

Only time will tell if Ted's intentions are good in Cherry county. but if he enters the bottled water industry I'll get a bit more worried. Or, perhaps he is the true butt bandit....

Sweet, Sweet Nutmeg

Some of you may have seen the Colbert Christmas Special last Sunday. Just in case you missed it, here is a highlight of John Legend's contribution. Eggnog, anyone?

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: John Legend

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Rabbit Hunting

Found this excellent kentuky video about rabbit hunting with beagles. We were checking into this breed of dogs for a potential puppy purchase. Then I heard them bark, wowsa. The video is pretty cool though, makes me want to 1. listen to more banjo, 2. hang out with these dudes, 3. thank the landowner, and 4. shoot guns while wearing orange clothing.

Here are some of the best quotes from the flick.

"We like the chase more than the .. killin. We like to watch a good dog work."

"Nice rabbit, be a good breakfast"

"I feel sorry for him, he's from michigan.... you see how he shoots funnny?"

"let em run the rabbit before we shoot it, that way the dogs get some work out"

Recap post

Its been a while since we posted, so here is the recap of the last month or two.

1. We moved. It is a nice place in a much more residential neighborhood with tree lined streets and of the best restaurants in town. We're now just a block away from Tria, a great wine/beer/cheese place that we've liked since we first found it a couple years ago. Plus its a great apartment with more space for us.

2. We watched as the Phillies won the world series, which lead to many late nights watching baseball around town. The party after the final game was wild, and our new location put us right in the mix of all the revelry. We hung out with the crowds on Broad Street for a while but left before any of the craziness erupted. My favorite crowd members were those that had the presence of mind to bring a pot and a spoon to bang. I was unaware of that phenomenon. I thought the guy that broght a large american flag was sort of hamming it up.



3. On election night, we watched Obama win before 10 pm EST, which was way earlier than we were expecting. On our walk home we saw another impromptu celebration on Broad Street. This one was much more civil; it didn't end in tipping over trashcans, and the crowd was a bit less drunk. It was equally jubilant though and I engage in spontaneous high-fives with random people on both nights.



4. Rachel and I are now down to the last season of The Wire, which is pretty sad. There will soon be no more wondering if Bubs can keep clean or pining over the fate of Bodie. The following clip is a hilarious clip of the Wire that's been modified with a laugh track. It changes everything.



5. I was honored when president-elect Obama asked me to be his chief of staff, but I politely declined so that I could keep up with my very important research. I only hope the staff isn't all ex-Clinton-ites when its all done.

6. I talked Rachel into dressing up as two dominoes for Halloween. I underestimated the awkwardness of walking around town in large box costumes. The domino chest bumps were worth it though. Next year I'm thinking more minimal (I think I may be an Okie Noodler).

7. I'm near the end of the a huge stash of pop-ice that I bought in the summer, which is really making winter a reality.

8. We went to an Oktoberfest beer tasting of an enormous amount of German beers with our friends Pieter and Carol. Afterwards I was a bit sick of hefeweizen, literally. And we were amazed to try the bacon tasting Rauch Biers, which were very smokey tasting. They reminded me of some very smokey Scotches I've tried. I would not like to try these beers again. Lots of the other beers were fantastic though, and I realized the beauty of the more traditional beers of Germany. It sobers my increasing love for the American "extreme" ales a bit.

9. I've started watching Paris's BFF show on MTV (a product of getting cable). I think they are all bitches (in a cool way) and wish Paris could pick them all.

TTYN

Russ

Alexis's Baptism

We were in the greater DC area last weekend to celebrate the baptism of our niece Alexis. Here we are with the little darlin'. It was good to see Valerie and Rob as well as Russ's parents and Aunt Claudia and Uncle Jeff's family. Can't wait to party this weekend with the Millers at Stacey and Rob's wedding!

LHC Rap

I'm about 2 weeks late on this post about the Large Hadron Collider, unless the world ended when they started it up and this is some sort of alternate dimesion. But I think this ultra, ultra, uber, ultra nerdy rap video was too good to pass up. Its also actually pretty informative and I feel I know more about additional dimesions and unified theory than I did 5 minutes ago.

OMG, Couric Punks Palin!

I admit I'm not one of these Katie Couric fans that fancy her a hard hitting journalist (although I admit I've not watched her recent journey into nightly news, and think of her as primarily a fluff GMA personality). But I must say, she tee'd up on Sarah Palin in their interview, and I think she derserves some serious credit (primarily for getting the interview, cause it didn't look like it took too much to show the lack of knowledge in Palin). It was the bad cop to Sean Hanity's good cop. The spirit of Tim Russert is likely smiling (the bills are 3-0!)

Abandoned

This is probably one of the more interesting blogs I've looked at in a while, about some transplant exploring lots of abandoned buildings in Baton Rouge. It takes a single theme and does it right. Plus a strange, erie feeling takes over one when even looking at the photos of these buildings; its like pure bottled sad, dessolate, and alone.

Nebraska is gaining recognition!

Someone sent this to me and asked if this is a common Nebraska treat. I wish. I'm not sure if I should be proud or sad. Nebraskans have always pushed the culinary boundries.

Bal'more Day Trip

To celebrate Labor Day, we visited the beautiful Baltimore inner harbor. The city of Baltimore has obviously spent time and money refurbishing this downtown area, and there's a lovely walk around the harbor, which is lined with restaurants, science and art museums, historic ship museums, and of course the obligatory Duck tours. It's a great outdoor space.

For us, the main draw was the Maryland Science Center and the Body Worlds 2 exhibit: The Brain, Our Three Pound Gem. Many of you have probably seen this exhibit or one of the two others currently touring North America. The exhibit presents real dead bodies that have been preserved using "plastination" to instruct and inform laypeople about human anatomy. The bodies are donated for this purpose, and the bodies are preserved and dissected to display the muscles, arteries, organs, and nervous system. (Skin and fat tissues are generally not preserved, although most bodies had eyebrows, eyeballs, and ears -- to make them look more like people, we think. Check out the link above for pictures.)

The bodies are each dissected differently and posed differently -- the "yoga woman" was in a back bend, the baseball player was midswing, and the soccer player was midkick. As if the method of preservation and the fact that real bodies are being displayed before you wasn't enough, the way in which they were presented was fascinating. You could see how the muscles worked together within all of the athletic poses and how all of our organs, muscles, and nervous system fit together. There were also many other pieces of plastinized damaged anatomy -- including a black smoker's lung, tumors, different kinds of cancers, and hearts.

It was very similar to the Mutter Museum, the medical science museum a few blocks away from our apartment in Philly. As the museum's slogan says, they are both "disturbingly informative."

Before heading home, we lightened the mood by checking out the Science Center's Chesapeake Bay exhibit, which featured a giant mechanical blue crab. And as we all know, Russ is obsessed with blue crabs. Here he is learning to commune with the blue crab.

Rusty in Denmark

Last week I went to a scientific conference in Snekkersten Denmark, which is about an hour north of Copenhagen at the closest point between Denmark and Sweden. Prior to heading up to the conference I hung out at 7 a.m. in a sleepy, jet-lagged daze which is captured by these pictures exhibiting my desire to photograph street food that I ate, evidence of Obama-mania in Denmark, old buildings, and myself in front of ships.

The science was excellent and I had a great time and met a lot of people. Here is me doing the science thing and pondering an insightful comment on my poster.

During the conference I got the opportunity to visit the Kronborg castle in the neighboring town of Helsingor. This is the castle that inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet after either Shakespeare himself or a member of his acting troupe made an appearance there to entertain the Danish royalty. It is your classic castle, moat and all.

There were many pieces of original art in the castle, which have been slowly acquired in the last century from the thieving swedes who stole it all when they occupied the castle in 1658. The castle also doubles as a modern art museum, which makes for a fairly schizophrenic combination of visuals in the large old rooms. One piece of art makes me think that a friend, Kirk "eagle" VanderMeulen, may have some Danish blood. I'm of course referring to the figure off to the rights enormous calf muscles.

Here is the blow up.


After the conference I hung out in Copenhagen for a night before I caught my flight home. The city is excellent, but contrary to what I was expecting was actually quite tagged up. This lead me to feel more homesick for Philly.

How to eat blue crabs

Earlier in the summer I was very geeked up about going down to Delaware to eat some blue crabs on the beach. The trip was excellent, and we found ourselves at Ed's Chicken and Crabs, which was a pretty awesome crab shack. Unfortunately, I don't know how to eat blue crabs, and although I did enjoy them I couldn't help to wonder how good they would be if I could get actual chuncks of meat with out shards of shell in them. Needless to say there is plenty of vlog literature on the subject. Here is a couple chesapeak good'ole'boys telling you how to do it.

Princess Bride on the Banks of the Schuykill

We enjoyed a lovely evening out on the banks of the Schuykill River a few weeks ago. The local car sharing program was projecting The Princess Bride (and giving away free popcorn) along the riverwalk by the Schuykill River. It was fun to hear so many people simultaneously parroting that famous line, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Here are pictures of our friends enjoying the picnic and taking the chance to catch up on your sleep.

Above are our friends Ping, Carolina, and Pieter.

Pieter didn't last very long.

Here is Russell with Ping's dog, Cookie. Cookie is pretty cute.

Singed Flesh Burritos

Of course, these burritos do not include "singed flesh" in the ingredients list. But as you can see below, the first time I made these amazing burritos I did indeed char my right wrist. (Too hot of oil + onions = ouch.) Now every time I see that scar, I'm reminded of these damn good burritos. So I thought I'd share the recipe with everyone. Just mind the hot oil.

Picadillo Pork Burritos

1 pound lean pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

2/3 cup salsa or picante sauce

1/4 cup raisins

3 Tbsp silvered almonds, toasted (toast in dry, medium hot pan carefully for 3-5 minutes until golden)

1/3 cup queso anejo Mexican cheese, shredded

2 Tbsp cilantro, fresh, chopped

4 flour tortillas

-Place pork in a large bowl. Sprinkle with cumin, salt, and cinnamon; toss well.

- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 3 minutes; stir occasionally. Add pork mixture; cook 2 minutes, stirring often. Add salsa and raisins; simmer over low heat 5 minutes or until pork loses its pink color and sauce is thick. Remove from heat; stir in almonds, cheese, and cilantro.

-Heat tortillas according to package directions. Spoon 3/4 cup pork mixture onto each tortilla; roll up.

Yield: 4 amazing burritos.

Huffington Post app.

My friend Jeff keyed me into this new application that the Huffington Post has out there that links up all the public political campaign contributions to a google map-like format. Its actually quite frightening. Jeff found it while being googled, its near the top of a search for "Jeff Howard Lincoln Nebraska". On the map you can see his name and address and that he is clearly a Ron Paul supporter (how did that work out for you Jeff?).

The application is actually quite interesting, as you can either search for people you know to see who they gave money to or look in your neighborhood to see who is donating to whom. It becomes pretty interesting when you start toggling between the 2004 contributions and 2008, showing a clear increase in democratic funding. Or to satisfy your more paparazzi instincts, you can see who all your favorite celebrities donated to. I guess I knew this was all in the public domain but it kind of seems a bit much to have it all easily accessible like this.

Sopping Wet

On his walk home from work Wednesday, Russell got caught in a downpour. After a week of heat and humidity, a cold front ripped through the area and brought sheets of rain down on Center City. He reportedly started sprinting home when he saw the wall of water coming behind him, but he was soon overtaken by it. Thunder from the storm was so close that it set off car alarms. A lightning show ensued. He was almost blown off the Walnut Street bridge by the strong wind. Here is Russell, after finally making it home:





And here is a video of how much water was in his shoes.

Beach camping in Dela-wonderful.

Rachel and I decided to beat some of the heat we've been experiencing in Philly lately by heading down the coast to Delaware to do some camping at the Delaware Seashore State Park. The camping area is just on the bay side of the "isthmus-like" strip of land on the coast. We had a short walk in the sand to get to the beach, which was beautiful. The water was freezing, however, which has been a big problem up and down the east coast lately.

The cold water didn't stop us from working on our tans (or in my case a lack thereof). We both got some serious beach reading done (rachel: the omnivore delima, russell: the confederacy of dunces), but unfortunately weren't able to break in our new aerobie, as the wind was pretty steady and strong.

The highlight of the trip (for me) was the crabs at Ed's Chicken and Crabs, your classic crab shack serving blue crabs dusted in old bay on a sheet of butcher paper. I've been mildly obsessed with eating blue crabs lately, and since there aren't a lot of crab shacks near philly this was part of the reason we decided to go so far south to the beach. Here I am preparing emotionally for the crabs with some corn.

Rachel was not so impressed, and felt a bit bad about eating something that clearly was alive only minutes ago. While Bunk on the Wire is unafraid of eating the "crab mustard" that can be found withing the cooked beasts, she was more into her ice cold Pacifico and a crab cake sandwich, which looked very good also.

It was so hot out that our little buddie even needed a pull from my lager, which I graciously allowed.

Before settling down for the night, Rachel and I hit the beach again with our camping chairs, a couple lagers, and each other. This was really the highlight of the trip. We had the beach totally to ourselves for most of the evening and we got to watch the moon rise over the ocean. I don't know how common it is for the moon to come up at night, over the ocean, to the east like that, but it was amazing.

We then settled in for the night. One thing that we didn't realize about beach camping: Its freaking HOT on the beach! Although the evening was quite cool, we awoke in an oven of a tent. It was still great though, as we just headed back to the water for a final cool off before we left for philly again.

Rock Paper Scissors Recap

Here is the long-awaited PBRPRPSCLCS (PBR Philadelphia Rock Paper Scissors City League Championship Tournament) post. Our team, the Paper Cut Posse, went out in a blaze of glory -- wait, no . . . that's not right -- we were mostly all out in the second round, even with a first-round "buy." The Droog (a.k.a. Steve) was our best contender, who made it to the final 8 (out of 50+ players) but lost to the RPS savant, Loomer. Here is Loomer looking stumped (left) while the Droog considers his next move (right).

Le Tigre (a.k.a. Russell), unfortunately joined us losers after the second round. But he lost to the 2008 PBRPRPSCLCS champion -- Mr. Is. Click here to see the complete standings and to read the league blog.

I consoled myself after losing with collecting the signatures of the players featured on our tournament street cash. (At each tournament, street cash is given to each player, who then play street matches on the side. Whoever wins the most street cash by the end of the night wins a prize -- cash money.) For the championship tournament, special street cash was created featuring players, characters all. Here is my signed street cash from the night:

Baconshark, the 2007 PBRPRPSCLCS tournament champion.

Fighting Mongooses, one of the Majestic Twelve (one of the Paper Cut Posse's rival team). We keep our distance.

Posthumyn, a serious street cash contender and one of the only womyn players in the league.

PJRhymeswithSausage, who kindly reminds me to "stay out of the library!"
(You had to be there.)

And everyone's favorite, the Paper Tiger. A man without a team,
yet every team's favorite player. He's a mystery within an enigma, etc., etc.

Taco cat IS a palindrome

This icanhascheezberger site is super precious. I'm a total dude, but these cat pictures make me all warm and fuzzy. Seriously yo.

Wissahickon Hike

We escaped the heat of the city and hit the Wissahickon River trails last weekend. The Wissahickon is one of three rivers that meet in the Philadelphia area.

Here's a bit of history about the river, for all you history buffs: The river valley was originally settled in the 1600s and the river used for mills built along its banks. The historic Rittenhouse Town was settled by the Rittenhouse family, one of the founding families of the area. They built the first paper mill in North American here. General Washington led the Hessian troops against the British on its banks. Now it part of Fairmont Park, our city park of over 9,2000 acres. It is an oasis of green within the city.

Qbert lives in Baltimore?

View Larger Map





Jack Roarrok has learned me a few very important things over the years. 1) BBB makes a wonderful camping libation, 2) the best way to get a garlic out of his husk is to manhandle it, and, as you can see in the google maps above, 3) Qbert apparently lives in the bay of Baltimore. The last one is perhaps one of the more amazing things that I have seen on google maps. It somewhat frightens me, and its made me be on the lookout for that crazy bouncy snake thing, coily. In case everyone (Rachel falls in this group) didn't grow up an indoor kid envious of the neighbors who owned a CalecoVision, Qbert was an extremely basic video game in the 1980's.

Curiously, on the wikipedia page somewhere they mention that he has "expressive eyes". All I see are the the crosseyes of a spaceball.

Also, click here for some retro- qbert enjoyment.

Roxanne and Jack in Philly!

As promised, here is a photo collection from our weekend with Roxanne and Jack in Philly. (Copyright, Jack and Roxanne. For a full report, visit their blog --linked below.) Here we are with our friends Ping and Laurel, who joined us for drinks after dinner. (Happy Birthday, Laurel!) I'm not sure why Russ is praying or whom he's praying to...

On the way to the bar, we walked past Independence Hall, which was the U.S. capital for 10 years while the White House was being built. It's also where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed, George Washington was sworn in as president, the Liberty Bell hung in the bell tower before it cracked, and Nicolas Cage vandalized the rooftop in search of clues. We took the tour inside the buildings later that weekend.

The next day, we went to the source of all things cheesy, Geno's Steaks in South Philly. It's the real deal (just like the gigantic cheesesteak at the top of their signage indicates). Here are Jack and Roxanne, eagerly anticipating their cheesesteaks.

We did some sightseeing that afternoon: we saw the Liberty Bell and the Mutter Museum (a medical museum) and we walked around Old City, the historic district of Philly. Because it was "nice" outside (probably "cold" to our Texan friends), we had dinner at the Jamaican Jerk Hut, one of our favorite BYOBs where we can pretend we're in Jamaica. We brought our own rum and beers and thoroughly enjoyed the authentic Jamaican food. We proceeded to Bob and Barbara's, one of the best dive bars in town. It's a shrine to everything PBR, as you can see below. I'm not sure I like how women come off in this one...

Russ knows that I never nag...

On Sunday we did a bit more sightseeing, toured Independence Hall, walked along the Schuykill River path, Jack ran up the art museum steps ala Rocky, and love blossomed at Love Park. It was a wonderful weekend with our friends -- Philly loves you! Come back soon!