Aaron Weber

Foodie Paradise

Yes, this review of El Bullí is on a website called Food Tourist. And this one from the Guardian is equally insane. Well, what can you do? I emailed and asked if a table was available in case of cancellation.

But I repeat myself. I think I’ve posted on this topic before. Do I repeat myself?

Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I contain multitudes. There will be time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. There will be coffee spoons. There will be wine. There will be vitamins and echinacea and exercise and Serrano ham.

My friends say, bring back a leg of illegal ham. Bring back a bottle of illegal booze. Bring back a funny wooden mask with mystical powers, or possibly termites. Bring back a case of syphilis, the red light district is full of sailors. They should, you know, they go from port to port.

Kitsch

Over the years, my girlfriend has accumulated a variety of unwanted gifts. They can’t be gotten rid of, but they can’t be kept, either. The cut-glass figurine of a cat (“she has a cat, she must like cat statuettes!”). Inspirational books like “I can’t accept not trying” by Michael Jordan, and a book for college graduates with a picture of the last pope on it, apparently because every college graduate needs sentimental pope-paraphernalia. They live in the box of guilt under the bed, where they will not be spotted by friends, but where they can be found in case of an emergency visit by the relative of origin. This weekend we plan to bite the bullet and ebay the more saleable items.

Correction

Earlier, I complained about people asking too much for used bikes. I still think that four grand is an awful lot for a 3rd-hand Ducati Monster 620 dark that’s been in a wreck, but according to the price guide it’s not as far out of line as I suspected.

Directions

I’ve determined that today’s route to Waltham was not the most optimal.

Best Firefox Extension Ever

Sure, tools for ad-blocking and checking the weather and seeing if there’s a new version of the app are all well and good. They do not compare to the Stop! Hammertime! button. It replaces the boring ‘stop’ button with a HAMMERTIME button, which does something MUCH MUCH BETTER than actually stopping. Requires sound.

Harry Potter

I finished the Half-Blood Prince on Friday night– Bookdwarf had company over, but I was hidden in the bedroom with the air conditioning and Harry Potter. For the last hundred pages or so she came in every few minutes to see where I was, and if I was crying.

I didn’t cry.

Angry Letter

Dear MTV.Com:

I just watched the MADE episode where Samantha is made into a Girly-girl (off-schedule; I have TiVO). The show said, check mtv.com for more. So, I:
* Visited MTV.COM
* Switched from Firefox to Internet Explorer
* Installed a new Flash upgrade
* Rebooted
* Visited the MTV Overdrive
* Crashed my browser
* Restarted my browser
* Visited MTV Overdrive
* Discovered that Overdrive Life After Made only shows info for the latest MADE episode.

That’s an awful lot of work for a disappointment.

Note: the same lack of episode information applies to Pimp My Ride: what was fan reaction to that C-10 Truck they put all those monitors into? I just spent most of this afternoon watching Pimp My Ride on Tivo and I want to know how Heather has fared with a truck that no longer holds her garden implements because it’s so full of electronics, and what fan reaction was!

Look, I know my life is empty. But your website doesn’t help me in my quest to forget that fact. I’m going back to beer.

Yours,
Verbal at Secretly Ironic Dot Com

In which I finally cave in

OK, so, I resisted it as long as I could, but I have started reading the latest Harry Potter installment. I managed to avoid reading any of them until last year, well after Phoenix came out. And now I’ve managed to wait all of six days before, last night, giving in and reading the first couple chapters.

My current guesses as to who dies in the end: I don’t know about the “central character death” but I’m thinking, there have to be some additional collateral fatalaties. For one, Voldemort. He dies at the end of all the other books, too, so he’s got to die in that one. Also that French girl. This is a novel by a Brit, after all– the French can’t go so well in this one either.

I kind of hope Hermione gets it, though. Not sure why.

Mitchum Man

Gothamist complains about these lame Mitchum ads encouraging people to run for the subway. Now, I don’t find those particularly annoying. The ones that get me are the ones in my gym: “If your personal trainer came to your birthday party, you’re a Mitchum man.” No, if your personal trainer came to your birthday party, you are paying people to be your friends. And especially the one in the locker room: “If you’re here at 7AM with a hangover, you’re a Mitchum man.” No, if you’re at the gym with a hangover, you’re drinking too much.

The thing is, I like Mitchum because it’s unscented, not because it’s intensely strong.

I Love Ananova

Who cares if it’s true? It’s funny! In the Netherlands, police aren’t quite sure what to do when they find people misbehaving in parks. The Dutch have a strong tradition of live-and-let-live, so obviously the first thing to do when you have a problem about public behavior is to discuss it and reach consensus. And then you get news reports like this: Eric Droogh, who is director at the Veluwe National Park, said: “A national debate on wild sex parties in the countryside is essential.