(no subject)

Having spent about an hour pushing buttons and testing limits in Google Wave, I would like to register my total lack of enthusiasm.

Seriously, it's like they took Gmail, Googledocs, and Gchat, smashed them together, picked out all the useful parts, and THREW THEM AWAY. Then bred the result with a messageboard circa 2002.

( Initial review )

Look, I know I'm a luddite. I don't embrace new technology. I barely allow it to give me a peck on the cheek. But when I try out new technology I try to be fair about its odds of being useful to me, and Google Wave appears to be the most useless app for my needs ever invented. That's not to say some people won't find it useful and helpful, but for what I need it to do, it fails badly. It lacks a lot of the simple utility that has made Gmail so ubiquitous. Its comment threading function is not as efficient as Facebook's, its posting function isn't as accessible as LiveJournal's, and its utility as a chat program is nonexistent. Even as a tool for betareading fic, it's not as good as Googledocs.

Wave is in beta, early beta, so I suspect it has a long way to go. I documented all these issues in a blip I made, which some other people have commented on with their own issues, and I would love to send this blip to the people who are working on Wave. Except, OH WAIT, THERE'S NO WAY TO DO THAT. I can't forward it as an email, I can't add them since they're not in my contacts, and I can't export the blip to a file to send to them.

I love Google, and Gmail, and the philosophy of simplicity that Google normally espouses. I don't know how Google Wave got past that philosophy, because it's clunky and complicated and beneath Google's usual standard.

(no subject)

BEHOLD

A fried whole game hen.

(no subject)

SO, THEN, I FRIED A GAME HEN.

If you're reading this on Dreamwidth or IJ or JF, you can check out the photo at my LJ. It went beautifully: I washed and VERY THOROUGHLY DRIED the chicken, then left it to dry for a little while as I set up the dutch oven with about 64oz of peanut oil. While the oil was heating, I dredged the chicken in flour and spices, patted off the excess, stuffed two cloves of garlic in the cavity, and tied the legs together (kinky) with kitchen twine.

I tied the other end of the kitchen twine to the handle of a large wooden spoon and, when the oil was at 350, I lowered the chicken carefully into it. There were no explosions or anything, but I didn't quite put enough oil in, so the breast stuck out a little. I fixed this by frying for eight minutes on one side, then using the handy string and carefully flipping it to fry for eight minutes on the other side. When the thigh-thermometer (thighmometer!) read 170F, I took the chicken out and set it out to drain. It probably could have used another minute or two, but on the other hand the breast meat is super-succulent and it might have dried out.

OM NOM CRISPY CHICKEN.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with 64oz of slightly-used peanut oil.

ETA: I did slip on the kitchen floor because it was a little oily from splatter. I have a lovely bruise rising on my thigh.

(no subject)

Time for Sam's Three Things About Doctor Who!

Spoilers within for ( The Waters Of Mars )

3a. THEIR HANDS. THEY WERE LIKE BLADES. ALL THEIR HANDS WERE LIKE BLADES! *dying*