Praying Mantis
Spotted this little guy perched on the lid of the trash bin
Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Political pontificating
Talking politics is something I try to avoid, mostly because it's a topic I'm not all that well versed in aside from the sound bites I get through the news, or only develop half-formed opinions/responses.
Road tripping to Florence, SC yesterday though, there was a lot of NPR being listened to. Half-formed or not, I figured I might as well spit these thoughts out.
Prop 8
I fail to see how anybody can reasonably defend the position that gay marriage is ok as long as it's not called a marriage. If you're going to reserve the term "marriage" for only church/religion sanctioned unions, then I guess all those heterosexual couples that got married by a judge or some other officiant are SOL too.Social Security
Employee social security taxes are apparently capped at something like the first $93k or so of your income. How much more could be added to the social security trust fund if the cap was removed? Perhaps not too much, but some is better than none, right?Repealing the Bush tax cuts
When it came to extending unemployment benefits, there was much gnashing and wailing by Republicans who said that the extension shouldn't be passed because it wasn't paid for. Well, here's a way to pay for it and maybe a few other things.Cropmob
One word: geniusBack to my irregularly scheduled ramblings
PhD Year 2
Starting off the first semester of my second year next week.
On the schedule for this year is Structural Biomechanics (BioE 820), Biomedical Basis for Engineered Replacement (BioE 846) and the weekly seminar class (BioE 800).
Going to be a busy semester coming up I think.
Charleston Eats: Kim's Korean and Japanese Steak and Seafood House
I first developed a taste for Korean food during my stay in Detroit, so I was very happy to discover Kim's when I first moved to Charleston.
Kim's is located in West Ashley on Old Towne Rd in a building that almost looks like it belongs in an alpine setting. The interior decor, even though it's been renovated to add Japanese hibachi and sushi, doesn't look like much. Covered up in the middle of the tables is what used to be a small gas stove, where at one point you could grill your own meat. Can't do that anymore though.
Don't let appearances put you off though. The food is where the action is really at. The bul-go-gi is always excellent and hasn't changed in the 11 years I've been visiting Kim's.
I usually end up ordering the family dinner for 2 (which can really feed 3-4), which gets you the pork, chicken and/or beef bul-go-gi, rice and the usual side dishes: kim-chi, bean sprouts, vegetables thoroughly doused in red hot sauce. The pachung (green onion pancake) is usually pretty good too.
Haven't tried the sushi bar or the Japanese part of the restaurant yet. Usually when I go it's Korean that I want. If you want Korean food, Kim's is the place to go.
BarcampCHS in the works
Planning for the second BarcampCHS is starting to kick off. Stay tuned to the BarcampCHS website or follow BarcampCHS on Twitter for the latest info.
Poutine-ish
Finally made it out to Closed for Business again for two things: Coast beer night and to try the poutine (fries with cheese curds and gravy).
This is what I got.
There were the fries, and the cheese curds but instead of the gravy I was expecting (which melts the cheese curds in to a delicious ooey gooey mess), the plate was topped with shredded beef (which melted the cheese curds into a nice ooey gooey mess). Not quite the poutine I was expecting, but very tasty nonetheless.
Went pretty well with the Coast HopArt IPA too.
Missy adopted
Missy, foster dog #5, is at her new home today! She went home with an older retired couple this afternoon and it sounds like she's doing well there.
Missy was a great dog, but it's nice to be back down to a two dog household.
BarcampCHS 2010 planning
First planning session for BarcampCHS went off reasonably well at Coast Brewery (although it was a little hot and noisy). The big items right now are finding a venue, getting some sponsors and getting the word out.
Thanks to Collecta.com for being a BarcampCHS sponsor again this year!
One location that might be a possibility is the Education Center at College of Charleston. It offers a reasonably big atrium and classrooms for the sessions. Parking would be a bit of a pain though.
Interested in helping with the BarcampCHS planning? We'll be having meetings every other Thursday at 5PM (next one on September 9) most likely at Coast, but stay tuned to the BarcampCHS twitter account for the latest on the meeting location. The meetings at Coast just happen to coincide with one of their beer tasting days. Come help us plan for another successful BarcampCHS, try some of Coast's latest offerings and bring home a growler of your favourite!
Cliq: Almost month 8
Wow, almost 8 months with this thing now.
If I think hard enough, I can mostly remember the phone number for it. Usually it's just easier for me to look it up in my T3.
Now that a few more people seem to have ended up with the number, I've discovered another mildly annoying problem with the phone. Sometimes when I make calls or get calls, I can always hear the person on the other end, but they can't hear me. It's like the microphone has been muted or something. The only way I've found to fix it is to reboot the phone. Sometimes.
Oddly enough, if I switch to speaker phone mode, the person on the other side can hear me. Of course that means I'm broadcasting my call to the world.
A while back I ran into another annoying bug where the speaker would cut out while listening to music or podcasts if I used the camera while something was playing. It's another thing that requires rebooting to fix. Since I don't have enough people calling me on a regular basis, I don't know if this muted mic problem is related to the camera thing as well or if something else is causing the problem.
On another less complain-y note, I've been using Swiftkey for a little while and am really enjoying it. Its predictive text actually makes using the screen keyboard a lot less painful. It takes a little bit of getting used to at first, but after a while it becomes pretty good at anticipating what you want to type next. It beats the pants off the built-in predictive text. It'll be an app worth paying for (once it gets out of beta).
Charleston Eats: Jack's Cosmic Dogs
Rocket corn dog, chili dog and fries from Jack's Cosmic Dogs on James Island
Counting down to Dragon*Con
Tomorrow my friend Rick arrives (hopefully).
Aside from going in to class, I have the next week off. Then Thursday it's off to Dragon*Con!
Time to start planning out what I want to do.
woohoo!