G.T. Dave's Kombucha

If you haven't had Kombucha, it's worth trying. Some people make bold claims about Kombucha's efficacy in preventing colds and the flu. I'm not completely sold but I think the theory is sound.

Kombucha has supposedly been around for hundreds of years, beginning in either China or Siberia. I gather it is a combination of yeasts and bacteria that transform sweetened tea.

I'm no biochemist but it sounds like the yeast eat the sugars, and produce ethanol and carbon dioxide (which is mostly released). The bacteria eat the alcohol and produce acetic acid, vinegar.
Kombucha ends up being slightly alcoholic (1-2%), slightly acidic (Ph of 4-5), and very slightly carbonated. Wine afficianados might call it "effervescent."

The idea is that these are natural, beneficial components of a healthy gastro intestinal (GI)tract. Replacing or bolstering these results in more efficient metabolization of what we eat, and prevents foreign germs from gaining ground.

There are many products on the market that follow the same reason. Yokult is one, and I've heard of doctors recommended some of these for chemotherapy patients.

After all, we seem to be a host for smaller organisms to team together and prolong their existence. Don't get me started on Toxoplasm, or worse yet, mitochondria.

Christmas Gift Cards

I received this email today and although I haven't checked my facts yet, my family tends to give a bunch of gift cards out during the holidays so I thought I'd post it:

"I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. (On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankruptcy Planning'). Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)

Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down specialty stores

J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)

Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores,more to close after January

Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Lowes to close down some stores

Dillard's to close some stores

There's probably more--be careful or just avoid gift cards this year all together! "

American Cheese

Ahh, the French may have French toast, French fries, French bread, and my personal favorite (although not a food item) the French kiss. But right here in the US of A, we have the venerable "American cheese."

Apparantly, American cheese is not only the name of the product itself, but it's the name of the first ingredient in "American cheese." This kind of grosses me out but the ingredients list for American cheese is as follows:

"American cheese (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes) water, dry cream, milkfat, sodium phosphate, salt, citric acid and scorbic acid as a preservative."

So there you have it in case you were wondering what was in American cheese. It's mostly made up of American cheese, water, dry cream and milkfat, with some additives.

The Great Southern California Shakeout

At 10am on November 13th 2008, millions of people in Southern California simulated the response of a very large earthquake.  Being just a matter of time before one actually hits, this move was brilliant in my opinion on the part of our urban planners and leaders.  The official site is www.shakeout.org but what's even more interesting I believe is what's going on at www.aftershock.net.

I don't have the whole story behind it, but it sounds like Aftershock was conceptualized by gamers and  built by everyday people submitting faux accounts of their personal experiences of what WOULD have happened to them, had their been a gigantic earthquake at 10 am on November 13th in Southern California.

Take a browse.  One thing I found was a color coded chart called "Fragile Plenty."  Although I doubt that is is... it looks pretty official and was very well done.  It outlines how in a disaster, there are 6 ways to die: too hot, too cold, hunger, thirst, illness, and injury.  The chart is here.

  

Comcast's 30 Second Skip

I just recently learned that you can program your Comcast DVR remote to skip ahead in 30 second intervalls.  I'm a little upset because this means that I have have unnecessarily wasted hours of my life using the [near worthless] fast forward function.  I would cheer everytime I was able to stop the fast forward on time and not have to go back, and then forward, and then back again...

If you have a Comcast DVR, and you don't do this, you are a fool.

1) Press the “Cable” button at the top of the remote.

2) Press and hold “Setup” until the “Cable” button blinks twice.

3) Type in the code 994. “Cable” will blink twice.

4) Press “Setup” (do not hold it).

5) Type in the code 00173.

6) Press the yellow triangle button with the A inside (near the "My DVR" button).

7) This is now your 30 second skip button.

Enjoy, tell a friend.  

My guess why they didn't include this as a standard feature is to appease their advertisers.  It is a sticky situation for TV right now, since you can watch shows commercial free online (like www.wuzzu.com, www.hulu.com, www.veoh.com), you can download them onto your ipod (www.itunes.com), and you can just skip them with the press of a single finger.

Get your stretch on

Can anyone guess what era this poster came from?

This was in the hotel gym and I found the perm to be quite hypmotysing. I think I looked closely at each scetch. Examining the subtle nuances between how the perm was portraid in each pose was consuming.

These were not done by Michelangelo; however, who knew how lifelike an artist could make a perm look with just a simple outline? It jumps right off the page.

"With a Smooth Filling"

I know this is a horrible picture; it's a phone that happens to have a camera, and not the other way around...

This is a box of chocolate at the check-out line in a bookstore. There were several flavors to chose from but the one's that enticed me the most were these.

"With a Smooth Filling". Not truffle, not almonts, not mint. "With a Smooth Filling". Awesome, what do they have in them? Well, it tasted somewhere in between Jack Nicholson and Magnum P.I.

Smooth.

Japanese characters

Never really noticed it before (and I've traveled through Japan) and it may only be my imagination... but doesn't the symbol for men look like a blockhead running?

I wonder what the radicals are that make it up. Or, maybe 'men' is a radical. I don't know. Apparently, reading Japanese is an incredibly difficult task; even for the Japanese. There are 3 "languages" and all of them can appear in a block of text at any given point.

I once met an American who had been living there for several years and studying the language for about a decade. He could interpret written Japanese but because it's not phonetic, to read it aloud to an audience correctly, he said, would be awkward, arduous, and most likely embarrassing.

Why do fires always start on the side of freeways?

This is the 80 just east of Pinole in Northern California. The photo doesn't do the scene any justice because I could feel the heat through the window as I drove past. This, despite my air conditioning.

There were no FD present yet and there were homes endangered just atop this small hill. I wonder. Is it always careless smokers flicking their butts out the window? I see patches of burnt often just off highways and fail to conceive of an alternative cause.

Yea Kids, Eat Right...

..just don't tell Hostess.

This is the opening scene at a Safeway, an uncomfortable 5 feet from the door. So close, in fact, that cart pushers have to let those exiting exit before they can enter.

Framed on our left is that waskely wabbit, Bugs, telling our kids that eating right is cool, it's fun, and quite frankly that if Bugs is doing it, you should too.

Framed on our left is a plethora of delicious filled and frosted goodies. Twinkies, Cupcakes, pies of all flavors, Ho-Ho's, Suzy Q's, and my personal favorite (I love the premise, although I don't they're fit for human consumption) - Snowballs!

How can you resist the chocolate cake and the marshmallow, dusted in coconut, and dyed hot pink? You can't.

Surfing Fort Point

What an eerie place to surf. The water is cold, there can be 7 knot currents on the outside, and the Golden Gate Bridge puts everything in miniature. Sometimes I feel like a GI Joe out there. Don't forget about the sharks either.

It is unfortunate that the wave isn't very good. It doesn't stand up tall and give you a long line to work with; it tends to have one section and then peter out. It is also extremely crowded. Despite the rocks and the sharks, you're more likely to get run over than anything else.

There's a particularly big rock right in the middle of the take off zone too. You either go behind it and race the section, or in front of it and risk dropping in on someone who is taking their chances behind. Very unfortunate placement.

What this place needs are some reef balls! They would create more of a shoulder, a longer ride, and even out the bottom more near that big rock. Except for the wave itself, the set up is great, relatively sheltered from wind, and you can't beat the view.

You just feel like a Smurf.

Jollibee

Ate breakfast here because nothing else was open near the Moscone Center. For a fast food transplant from the Philippines, it wasn't too horrible.

I opted for the "Sweet Pork Breakfast Plate" which consisted of, well, chunks of sweet pork on one side of the plastic container and scrambled eggs over garlic rice on the other.

The rice was garlic-y, I like it strong, but this would turn most Americans off. I guess "Sweet Pork Breakfast Plate" would do that too. Maybe next time I'll get the "Tender Beef Breakfast Plate" instead.

I don't think there will be a next time soon, but I was watching the Discovery Channel shortly after dining here and watched an apartment building in the Philippines collapse. What was directly across the street from said apartment building?

That's right. A Jollibee.