Hand Coding

I wrote about Marmite the other day. And, through reading over the FAQ, they suggested that, in addition to Marmite-on-bread, Marmite could also function well as a sandwich enhancer.

So, just now, I was ready for lunch (yeah, 2:40 is a bit late for lunch, but I had pancakes earlier). Anyhow, as usual, I decided to have a tuna sandwich (with tomatoes). And, I figured on trying it with some Marmite this time — ooh, it was good. You wouldn’t think that Marmite would make much difference, but it was very tasty. Of course, if you don’t like Marmite in the first place, then there’s not much point in trying it as a sandwich enhancer ;).

I have some DivX footage from my last autocross. I’d like to post it, but it’s 63 MB (and even the low-quality version is 55 MB). And, with my current hosting plan, I only get 300 MB trasfer/month.

So, if anyone would be able to host the file, please let me know :-). I figure that it wouldn’t be downloaded more than about a dozen times, but even that would still bust my trasfer quota.

Update: Hosting found — the video is now online.

Via the American Dialect Society’s mailing list, I discovered this CMU site on Pittsburgh Speech & Language.

The site is similar to Pittsburghese.com, but this one includes the etymology for each word as well. For instance:

Jag (as in jag off or jagging around)

Definition: Various forms involving jag have to do with annoying, irritating, teasing, or playing tricks on. To jag someone or jag someone off means to irritate or tease. To jag around means to fool around, goof off. A jagoff is a person who is irritating because of being inept or stupid.

Text example: “I don't know why she keeps jagging me all the time”
—Dictionary of American Regional English, 1968.

Origin: The exact origin of this word is unknown, but the source language is probably Scotch-Irish English. “To jag” means to turn sharply.

And, yes, people really do talk like that in Pittsburgh :-)

Wow, apparently there's even Quizno’s in Japan. Well, it surprised me, anyway. And, Quizno’s uses the term “proprietary dressings” like that’s a feature. Harrumph.

But, Quizno’s must be kidding themselves if they think Excel-based menus will, err, cut the mustard. Nonetheless, tasty subs, though.

In a comment to yesterday’s entry on peanut butter and banana sandwiches, Adrian asks:

The important details! Did you get creamy or crunchy?

Also how does the low fat peanut butter compare to the regular in taste, texture, etc?

As it turns out, I got the creamy variety of Skippy’s Reduced Fat peanut butter (though crunchy is also available). Actually, it’s labeled as “Peanut Spread”, so I'm guessing that it doesn’t meet some legal definition of “peanut butter”. In smaller print, it also says “60% peanuts”. Ordinarily, I’d wonder what the remaining 40% was, but Skippy’s FAQ answers that:

Skippy Reduced Fat peanut butter spread uses maltodextrin (a type of corn starch) to replace some of the fat in peanuts. It also contains soy protein, and mineral supplements in addition to the standard peanut butter ingredients. For additional information on ingredients in Skippy products visit our Nutritional Facts section.

Still this is only a “reduced fat” product, not a low-fat one. After all, a serving of this “reduced fat” peanut butter still has almost as much fat as a Snickers bar (12g vs 14g, respectively). Of course, the peanut butter also has about 100 fewer calories than the Snickers bar (190 vs 280, respectively).

Ok, on to the taste and texture, the important parts. It spreads just like normal peanut butter, and its texture is identical (as far as I can tell). And, the taste is good, too. Of course, I only ate some in the context of a peanut butter and banana sandwich (so maybe I wasn’t getting the full-on peanut effect), but I definitely enjoyed it. That, and I'm not exactly a peanut butter connoisseur, as I probably haven't had real peanut butter in about 5 or 6 years (and, no, Resse’s products don’t count as real peanut butter).

But, all in all, I was very satisfied. And, I’d buy it again. The key here, I think, is that this is only a “reduced fat” product, as opposed to an actual “low fat” product. Due to government food-labeling laws, “low fat” has specific legal meaning (that is, the food must actually be low in fat). But, with “reduced fat”, that merely means that the reduced-fat version has less fat than the full-fat version. So, as is usually the case, reduced-fat foods are healthier, while still tasting good.

Looking over the rest of Skippy’s FAQ, I saw this entry on giving peanut butter to children and infants:

[...] Young children, especially 2 to 3-year olds, can be at risk of choking on foods. When serving peanut butter to young children spread it thinly. For easier eating, peanut butter can also be thinned by mixing with mashed banana, apple sauce or yogurt.

Of course, I have no infants to deal with, but that excerpt did give me an idea that I could use those very techniques to thin my own peanut butter. So, perhaps by adding yogurt to my already reduced-fat peanut butter, I might be able to achieve truly low-fat peanut butter. Perhaps I’ll try a peanut-butter-yogurt-banana sandwich sometime.

Something good must have been checked-in in the past few hours, as today’s Mozilla builds seem to have noticably snappier page loads (builds after 2002062708, it appears).

Hmm, if the Build Comments are updated, perhaps that will spill the beans.

I went to take my car for an oil change this afternoon, since my site was down for a little while anyway. On the way back, I figured I could pick up some peanut butter, for use in peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Jason mentioned the other day that he preferred the peanut butter from Whole Foods. On the other hand, I would have preferred some low-fat peanut butter (16g fat is a lot to swallow, so to speak). And, I figured that Whole Foods probably would just have regular peanut butter :-/.

So, my plan was to get the best of both worlds by buying some low-fat peanut butter and some Whole Foods peanut butter. I stopped by Target and found some reduced fat peanut butter — actually they had several reduced-fat brands, which surprised me: Jif ($1.99), Skippy ($1.89), and Peter Pan ($1.79). They were all the same weight (18 oz) and all fairly close in price. So, in the end, I ended up choosing Skippy just because it had a better form-factor: its container was most cylindrical, which I figured would prevent peanut butter getting lost in crevices.

After Target, I drove further down Skillman to get some Whole Foods peanut butter for Jason. Unfortunately, though, when I got there, I discovered that the Whole Foods on Skillman had apparently closed on June 9th (so says the sign on the front). So, I would have bought some Whole Foods peanut butter, but that location had closed (sorry, Jason!).

As far as natural peanut butters (aka Whole Foods style), I actually saw some at the Target, of all places. Apparently, in addition to their Jif brand, the Smucker’s corporation also has a line of Natural Peanut Butter under their Smucker’s brand. It was available in both “creamy” and “crunchy” — and it had the characteristic oil-floating-on-top, so it appeared to be authentic. In any case, I’ll stick with my reduced-fat peanut butter, so I’ll leave the natural peanut butter choices up to Jason.

Ok, on to the sandwich itself. I got home, and all this thinking about peanut butter really had me jonesing for a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

• Peanut butter: check
• Bread: check
• Bananas: a little green, but do-able

So, I took out two slices of wheat bread and placed them on the plate. Then, I peanut-buttered one side of the bread (being a newbie at this sandwich-type, I wasn’t sure whether I should have peanut-buttered both sides). I then sliced the banana lengthwise. And, to be honest, I felt sorry for the banana for a split-second — I guess I just wasn’t used to seeing banana-guts from a lengthwise-perspective.

I closed the sandwich and elected not to cut it in half. I sat down at the couch futon and took a bite: tasty! In some ways, I was so psyched-up about this sandwich, that the first bite was every-so-slightly underwhelming. But, once I got in the sandwich-groove, I was digging it. Mmm.

In retrospect, I may try peanut-buttering both sides of the bread next time, as the peanut-butter-to-banana ratio seemed just a touch low. In any case, it was a good sandwich; I look forward to eating them more often.

Hand Coding may have appeared down for part of the day, but my hosting provider was just upgrading their boxes. So, now that the DNS has propagated, everything’s all right.

My portfolio and resume are now online. Feel free to link to either of them. And, if you do, please consider a search engine friendly link. For instance, here’s an ordinary link:

Alex’s portofolio showcases his skills in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

That would tell search engines such as Google to associate the words “Alex” and “portfolio” with my online portfolio. But, the link could be tweaked slightly:

Alex’s portfolio showcases his skills in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

With only that slight modification, Google “learns” more appropriate keywords for my portfolio :-).

I was talking with my brother over the phone today and we got to talking about the new Mini. Renowned as small zippy cars, the Mini corporation was bought by BMW. And, later this year, they’re releasing “the new Mini” (officially, the “Mini Cooper”), a complete remake of the old classic. I recalled, speaking to Adrian, that I had heard good things about the car, but I decided to find some specifics.

And, I found specifics from this Car and Driver road test of the Mini Cooper S.

Here’s some advice: Don’t buy a Mini Cooper unless you own an enclosed, lockable garage. Otherwise, you'll get to talk to your neighbors until 11 o’clock at night. They’ll come a-knocking, begging rides, trailing kids with disposable diapers and disposable cameras. And during those rides, other travelers will shout questions at you. From their moving cars.

[…]

There are two Mini flavors. The standard Cooper, with a base price of only $16,850, is powered by a 16-valve 1.6-liter four-banger producing 115 horsepower. The Cooper S fetches an extra $3000 but is supercharged and intercooled, producing 163 horses funneled through a Getrag six-speed. It’s simple to tell the two apart. The S is the one with the Royal Mail slot in its snout.

[…]

What the Mini does best is devour corners, thanks in part to its 3-series-style multilink rear suspension and spring rates that must be close to a Ferrari F40’s. On even the wildest kinks and whirligigs, there is simply no perceptible roll, dive, or squat. The car hangs on beyond what its grip of 0.85 g suggests. By the time you get the tires howling, your passenger will be dialing 9-1-1. Eventually, the Mini understeers, but on dry, public roads, you'll have a deuce of a time inducing it.

[…]

Our test car was loaded with $4150 of options, none of which increased its fun factor. The car you want is the $19,850 “base” S. Everything of consequence is standard: anti-lock brakes, traction control, 16-inch wheels that grip as well as the 17s, even a six-speaker stereo with a CD player.

[…]

All things considered, the new Mini appears to be the car to buy for around $19-20k.

Interestingly, one of the testers says at the end of the article “For the price of a Mini Cooper S, you could buy an Acura RSX Type-S or a Subaru Impreza WRX”, but actually those are $23,650 and $24,520, respectively. On the other hand, if you were considering something in the range of $23-24k, then both of those would be excellent choices.