This one is just for Bryan ;). I found this recipe for Jell-O Pudding Pops from the WhatsInTheFridge mailing list:

Jell-O Pudding Pops

Ingredients

• 2 cups cold milk
• 1 package (4-serving size) Jell-O Instant Pudding and Pie Mix
• 6 (5-oz) paper cups
• 6 popsicle sticks

Preparation:

Beat pudding mix and milk together, at least two minutes. Spoon into cups. Insert popsicle stick in center of each cup.

Freeze 5 hours (or overnight). To remove pop from cup, place bottom of cup in warm water for 15 seconds. Press firmly on bottom of cup and push pop out. Don't pull on the popsicle stick.

I haven’t had Jell-O pudding pops in years, though I suppose few have since they’re no longer on the market (petition to bring them back). All the same, I'd be interested in how these turn out if anyone makes some.

Since the Inwood Lounge doesn’t serve food, Leia and I are going to Lovers Pizza & Pasta beforehand, meeting there at 7pm.

They’re at 5605 W Lovers Lane and Leia describes it as “between Lover’s & Inwood and Lover’s & the tollway, on the north side of the street in a strip mall with a green overhang” (photo of said awning).

I haven't been there before, but I’ve heard good things about them:

It doesn’t look like much on the inside either: small and dark, with a less- than-dazzling view of the parking lot, encouraging you to order your pizza to go. But the reason you’re there is the pizza. Lovers Pizza has thin-crust, New York-style pizza, and they make their own sauce and dough. They even hand-toss the pizza dough and then top it with just the right amount of cheese, sauce and toppings. Then there’s the calzone. Ohhhh, the calzone. […]

I enjoy a good pizza, and New York-style is no exception. All the same, I’m still hankering for a good Chicago-style pizza in the Dallas area.

Anyhow, if you’re in the mood for pizza or calzones, you’re welcome to join us. Leia assures me that it’s very quick, but I’m tempted to show up a touch early in any case ;).

A British study has found that walking may not be enough to lower the risk of heart disease:

The study of 1975 men aged 49 to 64 from Caerphilly in south Wales found that while vigorous exercise reduced the risk of developing heart disease, light exercise made little difference.

[…]

“We do know that longer and more intense exercise produces the benefits,” he said. However, “the most important thing is that (people) exercise regularly, and they do exercise that they enjoy, and that they keep going long term”.

I also enjoyed this IC Wales write-up about the study:

Rather than taking brisk walks, sailing, bowling or playing golf, the man who wants to keep his heart healthy must begin taking part in activities such as hiking, jogging, swimming, tennis, squash or heavy digging.

Heavy digging? I can’t imagine anyone who’d embark on heavy lifting as part of an exercise regimen ;).

I have a several-day gig at Rapp Collins (in Irving) as an HTML Developer to cover for one of their regulars who is going on vacation (they found me through Monster). It’s not full time, but it’s a good start. For those who haven't heard of them, Yahoo provides this concise summary:

Rapp Collins Worldwide can rap about direct marketing better than most. One of the world’s largest direct response agencies, Rapp Collins Worldwide is a division of #3 advertising conglomerate Omnicom Group. Stan Rapp and Thomas L. Collins (widely credited with inventing direct marketing) founded the eponymous firm in 1965, capitalizing on the shift from mass marketing to individualized marketing (customer relationship management). Rapp Collins advises clients on sending marketing messages directly to customers via mail, telephone, TV, and the Internet. The company also tracks customer responses and recommends appropriate changes in marketing campaigns.

They tell me that they often hire freelancers full-time after a few gigs, so maybe something can work out here.

AIM has been acting a little odd lately, perhaps for the past couple days. Each time I sign on it says that my buddy list is gone:

Your buddy list and buddy icon are not available currently, but they have not been lost. Please try again later.

I’m not terribly concerned about my buddy list as I expect it to return eventually. But it sure is a nuisance in the meantime. Anyone else run into this?

On the advice of a recruiter, I took the certification exam for HTML at Brainbench (Brainbench is an online tech-testing company). The test was 40 multiple-choice questions (three minutes allowed per question) and it took me about an hour.

The test was $50 but I passed! They don’t reveal the actual score and instead give an aggregate score out of 5.0. They rate 2.75 or higher as passing while 4.0 or higher is passing at the Mastrer Level. I scored 4.53, which I’m very pleased with.

However, I’m not sure about how to integrate this into my resume. I could add it to the Educaion section, I could add it as a bullet to the Profession Profile section, or I could add a separate Certifications section. Any suggestions there? And, if the latter (adding a Certifications section), where would you add that in relation to the other sections?

I’ve recently discovered Date Plate on Food Network. You can think of it as a cross between reality tv and a cooking show ;).

What do you get when you take 2 eligible bachelors (or bachelorettes), give each a $50 shopping budget, and ask them to plan and cook a romantic meal in hopes of winning over a blind date? Date Plate challenges two food-savvy contestants to do just that.

So, these two guys start the show by watching a short video clip of the date-girl that they’ll be cooking for. The clip typically doesn’t reveal her likes or dislikes in food, so the guys have to base their menu off their hunches from the video.

From there, each guy is paired with a professional chef and they go to the supermarket together to spend their allotted $50. The chefs are allowed to make small suggestions but the menu ideas (and cooking) are up to the guys. After the supermarket, they go the kitchen of a real restaurant to cook the meals (which is always empty, leading me to think that maybe the show is filmed on a night the restaurant is closed anyway).

After two hours cooking time, the dishes are served at the same time to the girl (presumably to give her the chance to try them back-and forth). And, after the main dish, their desserts are brought out. At the end of the show, the girl has to pick which guy she likes best based only on the meals he’s cooked for her.

If you like reality tv and cooking shows (or one of the two), you might just enjoy Date Plate. The show airs Wednesdays at 9:30pm/8:30c and 12:30am/11:30c on Food Network.

On a whim, Jason, Julie and I decided to order-out last night. They had already had pizza for lunch, so we decided to give Pluckers a try.

Perhaps I should have known better than to order beef from a wings-place, but the avocado burger looked tempting. So, I ordered that while Jason & Julie decided to split a 10-piece order of chicken tenders.

The food arrived a little while later (though I wasn’t paying attention to the time). Jason & Julie were enjoying their tenders before even sitting down. Meanwhile, I placed my burger (and waffle-fries) on a plate since I was concerned that the styrofoam tray might become unwieldy.

On paper, the burger had it all: bun, meat, lettuce, onions, cheddar and (of course) avocado. But, it was just stone-cold. It wasn’t actually chilly, but I couldn’t detect any remnants of heat. It took a 40-second nuke to bring the burger up to an acceptable temperature — and I shouldn’t have to do that. The waffle fries looked the part, but they were also cold and more soggy than crispy.

Perhaps it was just a fluke. Or maybe Pluckers doesn’t have an expertise in beef. Either way, I don’t think I’ll buy their hambugers again, but I'd be willing to give their chicken another chance sometime.

The 2003 Masters at Augusta will be held this weekend. It looks like Woods is the favorite and a win would be his third in a row:

Will history once again be re-written as the 67th annual stroll down Magnolia Lane begins this week? Only time will tell, as two-time defending Masters champion Tiger Woods will try to become the first player in history to win this event three consecutive seasons.

Last year, Woods joined Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo as the only back-to-back victors in the Masters. Nicklaus turned the trick in 1965-66 and Faldo accomplished the feat in 1989-90. […]

I hope all the golfers play well, but it’d be more interesting to have a close game than a run-away win by Woods. Apparently, even what Woods will be wearing is news (yeesh, it’s like the Oscars).

Interestingly enough, there’ll be no commercials this time. With the controversy surrounding their male-only stance, Augusta National Golf Club didn’t want to harm any of their advertisers with a potential boycott.

I enjoy watching golf, and I’ll try to fit in some of the Masters this weekend. Watching golf is always more fun in a group, so feel free to invite yourself over for the final round ;).

Josh passed this one along and I was going to e-mail Josh about it but I thought I’d post about it instead (don’t worry, they’re different Joshes).

At any rate, the MAD Plugin purports to offer improved audio decoding over Winamp’s default decoder. It works with Winamp 2.x at the moment, and they add that it doesn’t work with Winamp 3 yet. Their method is described like this:

Internally, MAD represents the decoded audio signal with high precision. Combined with a form of dither, this allows output samples to be calculated with less objectionable quantization noise and more audible dynamic range than most decoders produce today. The result is unusually high-quality output that is a more faithful reconstruction of the signal encoded in MPEG audio than you may have realized possible. […]

Hmm, that sounds a bit like upsampling to me (though I’m not really sure). Still, I don’t use Winamp when I need MP3/Ogg playback — I prefer Quintessential Player instead (its interface doesn’t become super-tiny at 1600x1200).