Archive for Gadgets
July 7, 2007 at 5:08 pm · Filed under Gadgets
I decided to name my new camera natto (納豆 in kanji), a food that has become one of my breakfast staples in Japan. Fittingly the first picture I took with the camera is the one you see below - natto.
If you’ve done your research in Japanese foods you’ll know that natto is fermented soy beans and it’s one of those foods people feel daring trying. To many it smells and tastes rotting. The sticky substance the beans are covered in is hard on the appetite and makes the eating process very messy for the novice.
I first tried natto for lunch at work. It’s probably my weak tastebuds but I had no problem with the smell and the taste was o.k. But just o.k. It was really hard to eat. Even when I managed to seperate a little clan of beans for the rest and get them in my mouth I was still left with spider-web like strings of natto goo connect my mouth and chopsticks and food tray and probably other people too. I avoided eating it at work for a while.
But I continued to eat it at home. I had a really good feeling when I ate it. Like my body was getting something it wanted. The enjoyment progressed into somewhat of a habit actually and when I was back in Vancouver for 3 weeks, I was missing and craving my natto.
I have also improved my natto eating techniques. Every bite requires some stirring with your chopsticks, then you lift a mouthful of beans up and make a few quick twisting motions to sort of…wrap the sticky stuff around the beans and separate them from the rest.
Anyway, to continue the breakfast food naming trend, natto seemed perfect because I bought “Natto” in Japan. That makes the group: Pancakes (RIP 2006), Waffles I (RIP 2005), Waffles II, Syrup, Orange Juice, Poptart, Natto.
June 26, 2007 at 10:07 am · Filed under Gadgets, Spend spend spend!
Guess what I did on Sunday? This is a hint…
I bought a new camera : )
PS. The picture is of my dino friend at work. I picked him up as a souvenir from a udon restaurant near the office. The restaurant was in an old house and there was a basket of little toys to pick from before you leave…kind of like when you go to the dentist.
December 4, 2006 at 10:46 am · Filed under Gadgets
My camera is dying and that makes me sad. Seriously I had a flash of thought yesterday when the display was black with fuzzy purple lines - “what’s the point in living without a camera because I will not be able to capture my life and it will all be lost anyway”. A few seconds later I realized the absurdity of the thought but it still stuck with me and I contemplated why I feel the need to take pictures. Probably often, in the process, putting a barrier between me and my experiences. I’m not taking in this scenery entirely, just looking for a good shot.
So far a little smacking around gets the camera back into shape but soon it will be gone. Then I will take it apart and be curious for 15 minutes. And then I don’t know what I will do with it. It never received a name. Among waffles, pancakes (original body now empty but the pancakes spirit still exists to be embedded into a new body someday - pancakes II), syrup, orange juice, and poptart! it is the nameless one.
On the happy side, this is like the end of a relationship when you are going through the “oh yeah there are other fish in the sea phase”. On the train this morning I was eyeing up my friend’s camera. A possibility. We all need to move on.
April 25, 2006 at 7:58 pm · Filed under Gadgets, I'm a Nerd
Many of you know that I like to name my computing devices after breakfast foods. My new mobile which I posted about here (or probably just a scroll down the page if your clicking finger needs a break) has spent the first few weeks of its new life as a John Doe. This is unacceptable, especially considering that it, out of all my precious ones, has the most obvious name coming.
From today, the official name of my mobile is……………orange juice. Or “oj” for short but I`m debating whether I want to do that. I like saying “juice” too much.
So orange juice can now feel at home with waffles, syrup, and the memory of pancakes, who is still in Vancouver and has possibly been exorcised from the body it was living in (by that I mean the PC was possibly reformatted…but the memory continues).
November 27, 2005 at 1:03 pm · Filed under Gadgets
Such excitement! On Friday I came home early for a much needed before Friday night nap and a UPS guy came to my door. He had a package for me - one I was not expecting. Turns out Cycling ‘74 received an order from our department and because the last one was made under my name with my address, they shipped the order to me. What was it? The JazzMutant Lemur.
Oh so sweet it is. I geeked out all day yesterday. Beautiful I tell you and so easy to use! It’s a touch screen input device to control real-time applications. You program your own interface using widgets like sliders, pads, faders, and switches. Then you can write Max/MSP patches that use the widgets to control things. It is so flexible and very pretty.
For one day this was the most expensive thing in my apartment. In fact I think it was the only expensive thing.
