A story on MetaFilter turned me to the spoken-word recordings of Ernie Cline. They’re apparently of the poetry-slam genre, where participants are given 3 minutes to give a spoken performance, which is then judged by the audience.

At any rate, I quite enjoyed Ernie’s performances. If you’ve watched the show Airwolf, for instance, I’d quite recommend at least listening to that one.

In the MetaFilter comments, I asked whether this type of performance was representative of something that I’d find at a poetry slam (because, if that was the case, I’d certainly like to attend one). However, further comments haven’t definitively answered that one :-/.

From a Slashdot article is mention of a new low-carb beer from Anheuser-Busch: Michelob Ultra:

Michelob Ultra is a smooth, refreshing lager with 96 calories, 4.1 percent alcohol by volume and 2.9 grams of carbohydrates per 12-oz. serving. The brand began test marketing in December in Denver, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and Ft. Myers, Naples and Punta Gorda, Fla.

The press release goes on to say that “The brand will roll out nationally in September”. Being that Michelob Ultra is from Anheuser-Busch, I don’t have my hopes up ;). But, I’d be willing to try it once.

A couple weeks ago, Julie and I came up with the idea of a “Super Breakfast“ — like a potluck dinner, but with breakfast instead. Someone would bring pancakes, someone would bring sausages, and so on.

Since Julie and Leia were having a slumber party Friday night, they figured that the following morning could be a good opportunity for a Super Breakfast. Though the slumber party was girls-only, the Super Breakfast would be co-ed. In her invitation for Saturday morning, Julie phrased it that the scummy-boys would be making breakfast for the girls — I realize that she only meant it in jest, but I thought that was a bit odd. I would have preferred if the plan was for everyone to help with breakfast (and in practice, it worked out that way anyhow).

Since he’s car-less, I gave Bryan a ride to the house. He brought along his waffle iron and I brought along pancake-mix and a ladle (so that we could make waffles and pancakes, respectively).

Once at the house, everyone began making the breakfast. I combined the ingredients for the pancake mix, and began preparing those. Meanwhile, croissants and biscuits (the “with gravy” kind) warmed in the oven, someone made scrambled eggs, and someone else made bacon and sausage links. It was a very busy kitchen ;).

It worked out to be a very thorough breakfast. I had a couple pancakes, a waffle, some sausage links, and a croissant. I enjoyed the pancakes and the croissant with some butter-spread and sugar free blackberry jam. I also tried some blackberry (?) sauce with the waffle. It was very convenient in sauce-form (as opposed to a jam) as it nicely filled the square crevices of the waffle.

After breakfast (brunch?), I discovered some double-chocolate bundt cake in the fridge, which I quickly put to use. The chocolate icing was thin in texture and melted easily, so it was full of flavor. And, the cake itself was moist and chocolately. It was very tasty, and I always enjoy a good chocolate cake.

Earlier in the morning, I had placed the package of Ding-Dongs in the freezer, as I had read somewhere that they become even more tasty once frozen. And, post-bundt, I was ready to try one. At that point, it had been several hours since I had put them in the freezer, so they were mostly chilled.

Sure enough, they were pretty good. The cake-portion of the Ding Dong changed little from the freezing process. However, the chocolate coating gathered a pleasantly crispy texture. Best of all, the creme center of the Ding Dong took on a semi-solid state such that it almost resembled a fluffy version of the ice cream found in an ice cream sandwich. Hopefully, someone will bring Twinkies to the next Super Breakfast, as I imagine that those too may improve with the freezing process.

In all, I had a great time, and I really look forward to the next one.

In my commentary on the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event for September, Josh Baugher asks about other cider varieties:

I like cider, but haven't tried that many varieties. I've had Hornsby's, Cider Jack, Strongbow, and all the Woodchucks.

What brand names should I be on the lookout for (Besides Kelly's and Savanna Dry?

Sadly, there just aren’t that many varieties of cider in this country. So, he may have already named about 90% of the cider varieties sold in this country.

One distinction is that there are “two” Horsby’s varieties. There’s the red-label and the yellow-label. I believe that the yellow-label Hornsby’s is their Draft Cider, while red label may be called their Dark & Dry variety.

At any rate, the difference is that the yellow-label (draft) has more added sugar. So, it’s sweeter. But, if you’re looking for the dryer, more flavorful of the two, go for the red-label Hornsby’s.

Another cider is K Cider, which I talk more about in that entry. The K Cider was definitely an above-average cider, though maybe not to the level of my aforementioned favorites.

I’ve seen Ace Cider in the beer stores around here, though I haven’t tried it yet (primarily because it tends to be priced at about $7.50 for a six-pack). Through a Google search, reviews were hard to find, though I did come across this article on Ace Cider:

Ace Honey, which has been available for only a few months, is the driest of the three, and appeals to more experienced palates, says House. It collected the gold medal for cider at last fall’s Sonoma County Harvest Fair. [&hellip]

When it comes to cider, I like mine the dryer the better :). So, I may just keep an eye out for their Ace Honey.

I tried Woodpecker Cider long ago, back when I lived in Alexandria, VA. Of all places, I actually first found it in a Safeway. However, it’s brewed in Britain (the homeplace of so many great ciders). It’s been too long since tasting it to give any meaninful commentary on Woodpecker. I do recall, though, that it wasn’t oversweetened as some American ciders can be.

In contrast to Ace Cider, I found quite a few reviews for Woodpecker Cider. This one in particular interested me, and now I’m wondering just what blackcurrant is ;).

One cider that Josh mentioned was Strongbow. However, I haven’t tried that one — how does it compare to some of the other ciders that you’ve tasted?

Lastly, does anyone know where I can buy beer and/or cider by the case (24 bottles) in Dallas? I generally drink a beer with dinner each night, for the health benefits (in addition to its general deliciousness). However, I don’t want to have to go to the store every week, so I prefer to buy by the case (at Sam’s Club, so far).

However, Sam’s Club, as with everything else that they sell, doesn’t have an extensive variety. I find that I’m lucky if I can find cider there at all (I bought K Cider there once, but I haven’t seen it there since then). So, I’m hoping that I can find some other vendors in the area that sell by the case.

Popular Photography has an article on the question “Have we entered the Year of the Digital SLR?”. There’re some interesting bits in there, including the apparent equivalency that a traditional analog SLR would be comparable to a 20 MP digicam.This was my favorite part, though:

And 2002 could turn out to be the year of the affordable digital SLR (or, as Japanese designers would say, “Kotoshi wa digital SLR yasuhunarimasu!”). […]

That quote just came out of nowhere, and I’m not even sure what it means. But, I like it ;).

From PalmInfoCenter, Palm is releasing three new models next month! One is a low-end model (just 2MB RAM), one is a smartphone, but the third is probably of most interest:

According to rumor, it will be named the Tungsten. It will use a Texas Instruments OMAP1510 processor, which combines into a single chip an ARM-compliant processor with a DSP for multimedia capabilities, and runs at 175 MHz. It will have 16 MB of RAM.

Palm OS 5 has multimedia support built into it and, according to anonymous sources, the Tungsten takes full advantage of it. It has a microphone, headphone jack, and a speaker. […]

And, of course, it’ll also run at 320x320 (as opposed to the current Palms that only support 160x160). This might just be a worthy upgrade to my Palm Vx :).

At the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event yesterday, I asked Mike how he would recommend learning the techniques of photography framing and composition (as he deals with photography professionally). After all, with a decent SLR, taking physically good picutures isn’t as difficult as it once was, but framing and composition is still a bit of a learned art.

He recommended Dallas Darkroom — “A Teaching Darkroom Featuring Enlarger and Studio Rental”. According to Mike, they even offered basic black & white darkroom training for just $5 (which is true).

It turns out that they offer many photography classes (not just the $5-darkroom training). And, confirming a hunch, most of them were more normally-priced ($150-$300 or so). At first, that was a bit of a let-down but I then realized that if you’re spending a kilobuck on a camera anyway, then an additional $150 to learn how to use it is Money Well Spent.

So, after I purchase an analog SLR (this spring sometime, hopefully), I’ll definitely take one of those classes as well (and, after briefly perusing the course descriptions, it looks like “Elements of Photography” would suit me well).

The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event for August was held at the Tipperary Inn on Live Oak St. It’s an Irish-style pub, and the interior bars were even made in Dublin and shipped over (!).

Being that it was a Wednesday evening, it wasn’t very crowded — which I thought was a good thing. With fewer people, it’s easiler to have conversations with other people. Still, the sound still easily reflected off the many flat surfaces such as all the polished wood. But, that was only a minor issue (especially comapred to sitting next to the large glass windows at The Hurricane Grill).

I ordered a bacon-cheddar burger and a Kelly’s Cider. The burger had a good amount of meat to it, probably 1/3 lb or more. Pleasantly, it also had that char-taste that comes from a properly flame-grilled burger (mmm). The burger was $8. And, it was very good. But, was it $8-good? I don’t know about that. Maybe $7-good ;).

The fries were “very warm” but not quite “hot”. And, they were crispy-style fries with almost a crunch to the outer skin. I don’t see that fry-style much these days, and it was a nice change of pace.

Before I ordered the burger, I selected my drink. When I asked our waitress what they had on tap, she rattled off an impressively long list of beverages. I heard “Newcastle” among them — definitely one of my favorites — but my ears perked up at the mention of “cider”. I didn’t even hear what brand of cider it was, but I knew that it was one that I hadn’t previously tried.

It turns out that the cider was Kelly’s Irish Hard Cider (an Irish brand, no surprise there). As I write this, I’m having difficulty putting into words the delicousness of Kelly’s Cider… It was full of distinct apple flavor, but not oversweetened, so it remained very dry and crisp. It was fantastically delicious and highly refreshing.

Though Savanna Dry (only available in South Africa, as far as I know) is still officially my favorite cider, Kelly’s now takes the crown as my favorite-cider-actually-available-in-North-America.

It appears that, within the next few years, BMW will only offer a manumatic shifting option on their M3:

The company’s second-generation SMG is an option on the M3, and the next-generation M5 will also feature the Formula One racing-style paddle shifters, sans the traditional clutch pedal and gearshift lever. According to Rolf Scheibner, product manager for M cars, it won’t be long before SMG is the only transmission option for the performance cars.

Many M3 die-hards aren’t happy about this and, initially, I wasn’t either. However, I then reasoned that if it’s good enough for Formula One (all Formula One cars now use manumatics), it’s probably good enough for me :).

I’ve quite enjoyed the Meetups that I’ve been to so far, including Slashdot and other topics.

In case you’re not familiar with the idea, people sign up with Meetup for their interests, and the system matches people up so that they can meet as a group.

Anyhow, I thought that some of the bloggers may be interested in the Dallas Meetup for Digicams. Right now, there’re only three people signed up (myself and revjim included), so we need more people :).