OK ok ok… you want to see pictures from my new camera. Fine. I made a no-frills page on my personal site of selections from my Christmas photos. It shouldn’t be too hefty of a download since I made tiny little jpegs. The originals are nicely full of megapixels. Perhaps I’ll try out Yahoo and Shutterfly’s limited offer of free prints.

RejectionCollection.com is a site for writers to share their rejection slips, letters, cards. After Catherine Wald’s novel was turned down by publishers and dropped by her agent, she created the site to commiserate with other aspiring authors. A New York Times article about the site also mentions Rejection Slips, a site I stumbled upon a while ago when I was looking for links for my writing page. It appears that it has also turned into a weblog since I last checked it. My own favorite rejection slip was from the now defunct Story magazine. Someone had taken the time to hand write me a heartening response which made me feel like I should keep trying and one day I could make it. Too bad Story didn’t make it. If you haven’t seen it, here is the ultimate rejection slip, reputedly translated from Chinese.

Goodness me, it’s the iMac of sewing machines! Singer’s IZEK hooks up with a Gameboy and comes with a cartridge of stitches. It was introduced a couple months ago and discussed on Slashdot. Whoever thought you could hack a sewing machine? I suppose that since the original punch cards were used to operate looms, it is not a strange evolution. My mom is still content with her minimal-frills Singer from the ’70s. I found an even older model than hers (but strikingly similar) in a dumpster in Incline Village, Nevada. It still works but lacks zig-zag stitch (the big feature on my mom’s model). You can do a lot with straight stitches though. Although the Game Boy can channel in even fancier stuff to the IZEK, it still won’t cut and sew a dress for you. (spotted on Metafilter)

Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies presents faulty arguments and lapses of logic that trip people up constantly. There are fallacies of distraction (If I make an exception for you then I have to make an exception for everyone), causal fallacies (The increase in AIDS was caused by more sex education), and many other categories. Most sounded uncomfortably familiar, perhaps like things I heard during the recent Presidential election. Unfortunately, arguments like this are even more common than that. People use them every day, often without realizing they are being misleading. (via Yahoo’s Weekly Picks)

Glass artworks, especially smooth, curved designs, are a favorite of mine. Josh Simpson makes glass planets and has been placing them in various locations around the world, for anyone to find. With his Infinity Project, you can apply to leave one of his infinity labeled planets in a place of your choosing. It makes me wish I could apply to put one into orbit around the Earth. (via xblog)

I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon last night. The artistic vision of Ang Lee is always perfectly appropriate. The lavish scenes are lush and full of detail. The sparse emotional scenes are shot with sensitivity to the moment. The actors convey much through their eyes, their faces and movements. The storyline was much different from what I expected, and that was a good thing. Jedi Knight duels pale in comparison to these sword fights, even without the fantastical flights. George Lucas take note.

I knew the newsmedia wouldn’t let me down. I wondered a little while ago what would happen to Socks when the Clintons moved out of the White House. Well, I wasn’t the only curious one. It turns out that Socks and Buddy don’t get along, so Bill is going to try his best to repair the relationship (hey, Hillary got a Senate seat out of their relationship mending, perhaps Socks can go for something cushier). Socks may end up being turned over to Betty Currie or be moved to the Georgetown digs. I’d like to think that since he’s Chelsea’s cat, she’ll take over his care when she leaves Stanford, but if she goes on to graduate school, that will be difficult. So, what furry Republicans are moving into the White House now?

How awkward for the NY Times to be reporting on the layoff of its NYT Digital workers before the employees were informed by management. According to the memo obtained by MediaNews, that wasn’t how they intended it to happen. But I suppose that’s what happens when you work in news: you try to get to the story first. And for the Seattle Union Record, reporting on its own demise was a happy thing: the Seattle newspaper strike is over!

Scientists are attempting to create a “unified theory of traffic“. Of course the problem is that human behavior is notoriously difficult to model. But the basics of traffic flow have been mapped out and the intricacies that contribute to slowdowns are being worked out. My traffic jam fix, an idea I’ve heard from other people too, is to put up large obstructing screens when traffic accidents occur. People always slow down to view the scene of an accident. Even if the police are efficient about moving the damaged cars and emergency vehicles to the side of the road, the rubbernecking keeps traffic at a crawl (and it’s almost more torturous to be poking along at 5mph then sitting at a dead stop). But if everything is somehow hidden from the passing cars, then things should move along smoothly. Move along people, nothing can be seen here.

Something different today: restaurant recommendations. I know, I know… you probably don’t even live here so these are of little value to you. But I’m trying hard not to burn out on this weblogging thing (especially with it being so suddenly trendy and public, popping up in the media everywhere). And the last (and unfortunately final) time I ever ate at my favorite Chinese restaurant, they sadly told us that they were losing the battle with the deluge of Chinese places that had opened across the street. We said “we’ll tell all our friends to come here!” But I never spread the word, not that it would’ve made much of a difference. The next time we drove by, a sign on the door said “On Vacation”. They never returned.

Hammerhead Fish House at 5291 Prospect Rd., San Jose impressed me with their perfectly cooked vegetables. Often the veggies on the side at American restaurants are steamed to death and tasteless. This place knows how to cook vegetables, and if they pay attention to the details, you can imagine that your entree is going to be decent. Real reviewers, of course, have to talk about the fish, so here’s a recent Merc review.

Red Tractor 1320 El Paseo De Saratoga,
San Jose is where you should go when you think you want to go to Boston Market. When we asked if they had corn and they said “only when it’s in season”, I knew this was a place that cares about the quality of their food, not just the marketability of their menu. It is true American comfort food (with no-meat meatloaf thrown in because, well, it’s California!). Meatloaf, turkey, chicken, yummy side dishes, tangy barbecue sauce (OK, I am not naive enough to call it real BBQ), amazing cheddar biscuits, and fresh lemonade. They claim it’s all made from scratch, and it tastes that way.

Tofu House at 3450 E El Camino Real in Santa Clara is Korean comfort food. First you get a selection of fresh, snappy kimchi, some spicy, some sour. A clear tangy broth, sort of a palate cleanser arrives. Soon a big stone bowl of rice is hefted onto your table and they mix in peas and serve it to you in metal bowls. Your main dish is a big, boiling bowl of organic tofu in a broth spiced and flavored as you requested: vegetables, kimchi, mushrooms, or various meats. It’s a steamily yummy concoction. And when you’re done, you can scoop up more crunchy bits of rice from the bottom of the stone container which they’ve filled with hot water so you can have a digestive soup. Oh, and their drinking water is purified. Attention to detail wins me over every time.