29 July 2010

How to Properly Cook Scrambled Eggs

Today's SFGate Food section included a link to CHOW's The Basics: How to Make Scrambled Eggs.

While I applaud the intent of this recipe to instruct people to make good scrambled eggs, I gotta say, as a scrambled eggs enthusiast, I have some issues with this recipe.

First, who cooks 6 eggs at a time? OK, I do, on occasion, but I don't know of anyone else who does, even when cooking for two.

Second, the setting aside a small portion of raw egg in a separate bowl means unnecessarily dirtying up a bowl, and the recipe calls for fully cooking that portion anyways, so, uh, what's the point?

Third, the larger portion of egg is poured into the pan (I agree with the medium-low heat setting) and is just left there to get stiff, overcooked, and chewy. Alton Brown correctly instructs the egg mixture to be immediately stirred around as it hits the pan, to keep whatever egg that is initially cooked by the heated pan surface from being overcooked.

Personally, I like my eggs very wet and runny, and that's easily achieved without having to pour in a second bowl of raw egg mixture (cold raw egg in my scrambled eggs are not my idea of a good time). Just plate the eggs, with its hot runny goodness, out of the pan, sooner than most people would with their scrambled eggs.

25 July 2010

Refreshed Look and Feel

I just refreshed the look and feel of my blog site using Blogger's new Template Designer tool and one of the many great new background photos available.

For now, I'm trying out a 3 column layout to see how well it works. My intention is to give relatively equal space to my Twitter tweets, my Diggs, and my blog posts.

I am a bit concerned that it seems Digg has been steadily losing its appeal, even as they make some functional updates to their service. Facebook Like, Twitter, and Google Buzz are basically drowning out Digg.

I probably will change the background photo every once in a while, perhaps to reflect my mood.

Let me know what you think of the changed layout and design.

24 July 2010

Human Stampede in Germany Kills 15

An ugly scene, this time, in Germany, at a gigantic techno music festival.

"The festival, which drew about 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared that could spark a second panic and more chaos at the crowded venue."

At least 15 dead inside a tunnel after mass panic broke out due to overcrowding.

The New York Times carries the Reuters story, with photos and video. Terrible.

This sort of thing seems to happen once a year or so somewhere in the world. No matter how advanced our technology, this danger will persist whenever large, dense crowds of people amass.

Obviously, the music festival organizers should have been better prepared to manage the crowd size and flow of people.

15 July 2010

Haven't Watched TV For Months

It's a bit weird for me to admit that I haven't watched TV for months. As a kid, I watched tons of TV. As an adult, I curbed my watching to just some favorite shows. But lately, I've been going cold turkey without the boob tube.

Between work and parenting, these days I don't have much personal time available. Guess it's part of finally being a responsible adult. I try to catch up on sleep sometimes.

No TV has meant not seeing what many other people do see. Lately, that's meant not seeing any World Cup soccer games, not that I ever was interested in soccer. I totally missed the Lebron James announcement special, although I was plenty aware of it before and after from radio news while driving and news on the web.

10 July 2010

Finally, A Power Drill

I'm approaching 40 and I finally got myself my first very own power drill. My wife will easily tell you that I'm not exactly a handyman. However, over the past few years, I've been assembling a pretty decent set of hand tools, even storing them in a rugged looking tool box, which it seems to me every responsible, grown man in America should have.

In the past, I've owned a power screwdriver, but one of my ex-roommates snagged it from me while moving out, which I didn't even notice until many months after the fact.

But a power drill was previously something that I never thought I'd need or really should have any business owning.  I guess that's what I still think of in terms of any sort of power saw.

07 July 2010

Everyone and Their Mother

This is hardly a scientifically proven or statistically backed statement, but for the past couple of months, I've noticed in the Bay Area high tech job market that:

Everyone and their mother wants a product manager!

To make my point, check these out. These are all live job links, as of this blog entry posting, in no particular order: