During the Presidential election cycle, you heard Barack Obama say it at least a few dozen times: “We’re facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the housing market, and recent unemployment figures provide about as much inspiration as the thought of a George W. Bush worldwide speaking tour. (In case you’re wondering, we’re not expecting W’s version of the Clinton Global Initiative to launch anytime soon.)
I did not conquer racial division this weekend. In fact, I hardly made it out of my apartment. (Twenty-below-zero temps have that effect on me.) However, I did learn a couple of culinary lessons that people of all races and creeds may find helpful.
1. Quinoa needs to be washed. A lot. The Incas called it “the mother of all grains,” but I call it “the mother of all pains.” It’s incredibly healthy, tastes good (in a very unique way), and has a hip-sounding name, but as far as preparation goes, it is definitely no Minute Rice. (Fortunately, many quinoa companies sell their grains pre-washed.)
2. Granola is fun and easy to make, after all, as long as you don’t burn it. I made about a month’s worth of granola this weekend using these tips from How to Cook Everything author Mark Bittman, who says, “You don’t have to be a hippie to make granola, but it helps…”
I also had a few dreams this MLK weekend, but you really don’t want to hear about those.
I’m working on gradually upgrading the look and functionality of Identity Theory as well as this blog and some other projects, so I’ve been reading a lot more articles on web design lately. The following posts and/or resources have proven exceptionally interesting:
1. Smashing Magazine discusses Textures in Modern Web Design.
2. The always insightful Jeffrey Zeldman offers Recession Tips for Web Designers.
3. NETTUTS gives you The 20 Most Practical and Creative Uses of jQuery.
4. A Flickr Creative Commons Search enables you to sift through thousands of photos that will usually be reusable in some way for free.
5. DesignMag features 40+ Inspirational Non-Profit Website Designs.
“Does Tim Tebow now belong at the top of the list as the greatest college football player of all time?” they argue, some believing it to be true, others holding off judgment for another year. Read More
Cooking is a basic human activity dating back thousands of years. I’m not a very good cook. So, my major resolution for 2009 is to train myself to become a top vegetarian chef. I’m not looking to head up a restaurant in Beverly Hills or sell a line of overpriced cookbooks or anything like that; becoming great at preparing a wide variety of vegetarian food from a bunch of different cultures will suffice.
Before the new year started, I had the cutesy idea of trying to cook something from a different continent every day of the week. (Get it, seven continents, seven days?) That proved to be an unrealistic goal since the ingredients don’t overlap enough–I’d have wasted way too much leftover quinoa and couscous. Read More
VIDEO: Bill Hicks on Letterman
David Letterman tried to ease his conscience the other night by airing this clip of comedian Bill Hicks that Letterman cut from his show about 15 years ago.