chocolate chip pancakes

"dark chocolate chip pancake" by truck stop tea party

Here is the wisest thought I have had in the past 24 hours:

Chocolate chip pancakes are like cookies that you are allowed to put syrup on.

Suck on that!

why are we drinking coffee?

I've taken to drinking coffee pretty much every day now. I guess I'm addicted. I don't feel like I need it to function, but it is like a treat I allow myself everyday. I'm not even sure how much I enjoy it sometimes, or if it is just an excuse to ingest some sugar and put off work for a half hour. Perhaps I am just in a funk and I can't seem to believe that much could be enjoyable ever. No, that can't be true, cuz I enjoyed this comic strip, the real excuse for this blog post:

"Mmmm, Coffee", from Dog Hates ME

Matlab Function Handles

A Pretty Seashell by Tim Davis

Matlab function handles are making my life hard. In a function, I created an anonymous function and made it a field of an array of structs, and then I saved this array to file. Loading the file is not going well, apparently because it relies on the function that created the function handle being in exactly the same place relative to where the handle was created. Supposedly, the function should just not work when loaded. I'm finding that for some files it won't load the data at all, and sometimes I have trouble saving as well in Matlab R2009A. In conclusion, function handles are giving me a hard time. I recommend never saving them to file not even by accident.

Monsters Under the Bed

From Monsters Exist Monster Identifier

As a child, I was afraid of monsters under my bed, and felt safer if I kept my feet under the blanket, you know, cuz monsters can't get through the magical protection of the blanket. K. brought up the interesting idea that this is some kind of evolved fear -- keeping one's feet under a blanket probably protects them from like snakes and other critters' bites in the night. Anyways, I thought it was an interesting idea.

P.S. Apparently the monster under my bed is the "Soul Sucking HorseFly... of Doom".

Everything is funnier when frosted on a cake

I was indirectly pointed to the blog Cake Wrecks by Dan B. There are many types of cake awesomeness exhibited on this site. There are stupid-cake-decorator examples, where the cake decorator took instructions too literally or misunderstood the instructions in some other way, and hilarity ensued, such as:

"The Cake that Started It All", Cake Wrecks

"The Problem with Phone Orders", Cake Wrecks

There are poorly executed, pug ugly, and/or poor taste cakes:

"Inspiration vs. Perspiration", Cake Wrecks

(supposedly, the cake on the right was a wedding cake created by a professional, paid baker, and meant to look like the cake on the left).

"Going to the Dogs", Cake Wrecks

"Cupcake Cakes: Always Wrecktastic. Always.", Cake Wrecks

(The baker was asked to make a "happy monkey cake" (left), which the blog acutely observes looks more like Teen Wolf (right))

"Cupcake Cakes: Always Wrecktastic. Always.", Cake Wrecks

The Creepiness Continues, Cake Wrecks

The most awesomest cakes on the blog are the ones that are just weird for no good reason. Weird stuff is funny in general, but it's way better when frosted on a cake (a) because cakes are supposed to be all sunshine and lollipops and (b) because they're made to be eaten.

Naked Mohawk Baby Carrot Jockeys, Cake Wrecks

"Come to the Dark Side: We Have Cake", Cake Wrecks

"When Gangsters Go P.C.", Cake Wrecks

Anyways, if you, like me, enjoy cake, frosting, and schadenfreude, and are also bored at work, I recommend you waste some time at Cake Wrecks.

NPR concerts

I think this concert is really pretty:

Andrew Bird in Concert, Feb. 3, NPR.

Andrew Bird, by Joel Didriksen.
I have listened to it twice already :).

This Radiohead concert also on NPR is also supercool:

Radiohead in Concert, Sep. 5, NPR.

Radiohead, by Jesse Groves.
I have listened to it more than twice...

The Dangers of Stem Cell Research

Eleventh Hour, Resurrection, by Scott Tobias

I'm visiting San Diego this weekend, and I watched a show called "Eleventh Hour" with my Mom. It has to be seen to be believed. The main character is a "scientist" (he goes around introducing himself, "My name's [blah blah blah]. I'm a Scientist.") investigating unusual crimes for the FBI. The crime on yesterday's program: some evil country club types were stealing stem cells from kids with cancer so that they could inject the stem cells into their faces and rejuvenate their skin. Their downfall: injecting the stem cells too deep into their faces, causing one of them to grow a second heart, over-oxygenate his blood, and drive into a swimming pool.