Sorry Time Machine, I'll backup tonight..

Leave it to me to disconnect my time machine drive. I rearranged the system and left the drive in another room.

Today's soup

Using leftover brown jasmine rice, blended with carrot slices, scallions, pepper, sesame oil and fresh garlic. Used organic vegetable broth from TJ's.

new snack treat

I can't get enough of feta cheese. Today, I tried this. Mix a handful of preztels (unsalted) with chunks of feta. Mix and eat. Wayyy better than Combos!

And there's a way to make feta cheese at home. here's how from Wikihow.

Soup Experiments

I may have said in an earlier post that I never liked soups until recent years. So the other day, I did an experiment. I took a can of vegetable stock, an equal amount of water, a few drops of pure sesame oil, adding spices of ginger, black pepper, garlic, sea salt. Bringing all that to a boil, I then added vegetables of chinese cabbage, celery, mushrooms and broccoli florets and cooked all for a few minutes. I really didn't want the broccoli to get pale. Once that was cooked, I added a few eggs (inspired by a local Asian restaurant). I must admit that surprisingly, the meal turned out delicious BUT the broccoli heads probably weren't a good choice as they and the egg mixture didn't look too pretty. The broth alone is worth noting.. it was simply appealing to the palate. I get this mental thing with soups now... it's like it awakens me. I love soups!!! I'd like to research what are the benefits of a soup only diet, because if I had a choice what to eat, I'd choice soups easily.

Yummy Soups

I'm definitely turning into a soup fan. I used to hate soup, I thought what was the point of having it? Was I ever wrong, soups are great. I've been experimenting with various recipes on the net. I usually like Asian style soups. In Philly, there are tons of Asian restaurants and many server great soup dishes as appetizers. Aside from asking the cooks the recipe, which probably won't happen, I've searched online and found a few ones that seem plausible to try. I head to the H-Mart nearby to get the ingredients; what I've learned is that you MUST stick to the directions, don't skimp. Other times, I experiment with ingredients such as bok-choy, Chinese cabbage, scallion, Chinese parsley (i think it's cilantro), carrots, celery, onion, five spice, sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic and soy sauce. I'm awful when it comes to cooking rice noodles. One time I used glass noodles for my Pho but it turned out disgusting looking so I threw it all away. I do have trouble cooking with noodles so I usually skip them or I'll use regular pasta or whole wheat vermicelli. However, when the urge hits, I can get authentic pho from a Pho Vietnamese restaurant around the city. I also was buying the wrong noodles.

They're back. Alpha Bits

A couple of years ago, Post took Alpha Bits off the market, Well guess what. the original recipe is back! I got a box just on GP. ABs are great with warm milk.. hehehe that's my secret to eating box cereal. The warmness of the milk creates an incredible essence that you'd never achieve with cold milk and cereal. According to wiki:

The cereal was introduced in 1958, and was taken off the market in 2006. However, Alpha-Bit re-appeared for sale in January 2008 with a new formulation, touting "0% Sugar!" as a "Limited Edition" cereal. The old recipe was reintroduced later in 2008.

Now I don't think I've ever spelled anything with the letters..hehehe

Help me remember the name of this product!

I haven't seen these in years! I would always get a box from the 'corner store.' What can I tell you, well my rudimentary image is a representation of the real box Nabisco sold. Now I've searched the net over the years, yet there's nothing out there that mentions this product, as if it never existed! What you'd get was three packs of cookies per box, 2 of the same kind and one of the other. Usually, it was the 2 Oreo packs and 1 Oreo Golden (though they weren't called "Golden" back then).



Nabisco really had a winner there,Hey if you know the name, then leave a comment please? I'd wish it returned!

BENTO makes me laugh

Check this out. I can't stop laughing at these Bento boxes I've searched on Flickr. Some are too funny. This is the best I think. See more here.

Cool Blog I discovered today

I'm really liking this new blog childhoodmemorykeeper. Check out the old toy we had back then. Ahh the memories!

"When EF Hutton Talks.... People listen"

This was a great commercial back in the day. Anytime their ads would air, I only wanted to see the last few seconds. The clip below is one I've never seen before or don't recall 20yrs+ ago.



I hope someone uploads a better one.. especially the one where everyone is in a busy restaurant and all gets quiet when someone says, you guessed it "E.F. Hutton!" This is the only one I've found thus far on youtube.

What I learned today or Firefox Deployment 101

I learned how to deploy FireFox using command line switches. Apparently, you only need the installer files from the firefox installer quickly get them before you exit firefox'; install because they get deleted after you hit the "Finish" button. So leave that dialog box open and look under user's temp folder under appdata. The commands are very simple, I just created a batch file for install and uninstall, made a copy of the pref.js file after the browser is configured.. you know like "auto scrol, cache settings, default home page, etc.

The commands to install repository folder\7zS6D.tmp\setup.exe /S

The command to uninstall
"c:\program Files\Mozilla Firefox\uninstall\helper.exe" /S

*Note the /S is case sensitive so you must use uppercase "S"

Amazon's site is very slooooooooow today

Consider it my own fault. Yes I waited until the 11th hour to buy something from amazon.com. I heard on the news today (KYW-1060AM) that today is the last day for free shipping before Christmas Day 2008. Finally, I was able to place the order after minutes upong minutes of spinning browsers icons. The order is expected to arrive Dec 24. I plan to keep us posted on how reliable Amazon's shipping is. Usually I do get their products in a few days. We'll see what happens this time.

iTunes.. Suggestions to improve

I use iTunes practically everyday. What I'd like Apple, Inc to do is to add a feature to LOCK the application from editing mode. I always find myslef accidentally hiting a key and then erasing a track's title or even a playlist name. There should be a feature in upcoming iTunes releases that allow the user to lock down the application so accidents like mine can be prevented.

Will the real TUAW stand out?

As I was checking my RSS feeds in FireFox, I was listening to a WHYY live stream when a report was broadcasted regarding the automakers bailout not being passed in the Senate, at that moment, a correspondent mentions The UAW (formerly known as the Union of Auto Workers, but now encompasses more professions such as Aerospace and Agriculture). It just so happened that I was ready to browse RSS feeds from the other >TUAW (AOL's The Unofficeial Apple Weblog). Conincidence? Serendipity? Or just nonsense. Things like this happen to me quite often.

Hello!...

One of the best scenes in one of the best movies ever! My all time favorite, The Big Sleep.. Humphrey Bogart and a young woman, Looks are deceiving so see how he scene unfolds; the writing is amazing. Note the "Helloooo.." from Bogie.

Brown Rice Vs White Rice

Brown vs White. Which is better.
I had brown rice as part of a dish from a Chinese food cart in Center City. Actually it was Shrimp, brown rice with Chinese vegetables (brocooli, carrot, cabbage, maybe some celery)
After I google'd, and according to, this site

..."Since brown rice retains some of the natural oil which may go rancid in few months of usage ( esp opened storage ) . It may be wise to use up the rice in couple of months . Rancid oil generates harmful free radicals inb our blood stream that lead to cell aging in our body...."

These food carts are apart of Philly and you don't get them in other cities like the one up north! Which reminds me of something I've wanted to do..plot the Center City locations of these carts. From memory I know of several locations here goes

18th&Market
18th&JFK
15th&Race
6th&Market

There used to be more locations (13th&Market...7th&Chestnut now gone), so if I find them, I'll add them here.
Update: The 7th St location, just south of Chestnut, is still there! It's just a few steps north of Sansom St.)

Eggs..Bad or Good test

Thanks Answers/Yahoo--> ANSWERS-YAHOO

System scewed up

I now have to reinstall Windows XP because I apparently caught a hijacked browser bug from virtumonde?? After attemping to remove the corrupted .dlls and modify the registry, windows reported that the license was broken and to activate it again with M$. What a P.I.T.A! I hardly ever have this problem with OS X . Usually I deliberately rebuild my mac just for efficiency.

MacWorld Editor awards

Feast on these items. From Macworld MacWorld Article, Dec. 2008
I need to try out the ScreenFlow application soon.

Hidden & Secret passages...

I've always been very curious about secret passages.. You know like the
kind you'd find in the Abbott & Costello movie..
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So Howard mentioned how he leaves the building after the show through a secret door or passage and I recall Wendy saying something similar awhile ago about Frankie Crocker doing the same. How neat.

It's not that cold here

It could be alot colder, but it's not. With temps in the mid 30's to upper 40's, the weather is very bearable in Philly. I haven't turned on the furnace all week!

Shakeups at WBLS 107.5 FM

Howard Stern said today that he received word that Champaine was fired from WBLS 107.5FM. I went to the website and no longer see her picture nor Vaughn Harper's. Does this mean that he's fired too? I can't find anything online just yet. On another note, The site states that Wendy's show runs from 2pm-7pm. Does this mean that Wendy has regained her Bonus hour which was usurped in August 2008? Who knowns, maybe she's been axed too since the last time she was on air was Monday November 24, 2008.

(UPDATE: Feb 2009. Wendy's still on the air, and her program is only 4 hours so NO bonus hour. I know I heard her say she now likes getting home earlier and I know she'll need the extra time come Summer 2009 when her television show starts on many Fox affiliated stations)

Way to go CVS!

What a Monday it's been and it's not even 12noon yet! First, CVS is doing it way big with a .77 cent sale for the 3-liter Poland Spring bottled water jugs. This week's sale is the bomb! I just picked up 2 bottles. That's gotta be the cheapest ever. I've never bought the 3-liter bottles because I felt it was a ripoff versus the gallon jugs and since the 3-liter bottle is in an 'easy to pour' shape, it's always been expensive and just not worth buying when other GALLON alternatives are much cheaper.