So, I appear to be at about 1 blog post per year... I'm at about one tweet per day, though. Mayhaps when I have more useful things to say, or perhaps a theme, I'll have more to put here... Until then, find me here:
@samnotes
I tried asparagus once before I was 10 years old. It was from a can and mushy and had a horrible smell. I decided to never eat it again.
In high school I heard that asparagus makes your pee (among other things) smell/taste funny. Seemed like a detriment to trying to attain a physical relationship with a girl. Another strike against asparagus.
Upon moving to Oregon, I was offered asparagus in many forms (all of them fresh, not canned) and turned down the first few offers. After some further prodding, thanks to my lovely wife, I gave asparagus another chance. I believe the first asparagus dish I tried was chopped asparagus sauteed with bacon in a shoyu sugar sauce. I was very tentative and took only a couple of peices of inch-long asparagus with some bacon. I thought it wasn't bad for asparagus.
After a few more dinners over a period of months with the same dish, my servings became bigger and bigger until I finally had to admit that I really liked it. So, new asparagus dishes were tried on me, with a pretty high success rate. So, now I have to admit that I honestly like asparagus. I prefer it with a pork product closely coupled with it, like the bacon/asparagus dish. Grilled prosciutto wrapped asparagus is also an excellent side to a meal.
I have a feeling this will be the first of many posts about "Things I Wouldn't Eat as a Child," as there were many many things I wouldn't eat... But there are now many of those things that I gladly welcome to my digestive tract.
What do you eat now, that wouldn't have as a kid?
Yet another reason for celebration...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night
NPR has you going for Obama!
I guess CNN hasn't woken up yet today. Even the BBC has declared an Obama victory in Indiana. 
Absolutely fantastic job!
UPDATE
CNN now has Indiana going Obama! Word!
I don't know how you people who have to physically go to a voting booth do it. It took me 2 or 3 hours last night to vote. We had 10 measures + a bunch of other things to vote on besides people running for office. If we had to do this in a booth, it would be ridiculous.
I did see an awesome graphic about voter turnout in Oregon so far:
I'm not overly confident, but this is definitely a good sign. Especially considering not all Republicans are going to vote for McCain.
I really want this to be a decisive victory for Obama.
It was fun. Glad to see everyone... Even though Ramona thought I was boring.
Here are reviews I wrote for all the places I went:
This is an horrendous act and I am appalled that it has happened anywhere, but especially that it happened in the American Midwest:
So, some 12 year old kid -- in Oregon, no less -- has developed a 3-d solar cell that absorbs both infrared and visible light that could provide 500 times more absorbtion than current commercial models.
Ananth at Applegeeks had some good stuff to say about it.
It really makes you feel inadequate, ya?
It may come as a shock to most of you, but everyone I've talked politics to in my family has said they prefer Obama over the other candidates. It surprised me. Pleasantly. I'd rather not discuss their reasons publicly (as they're not mine to disclose), but give me a ring and I can tell you. It's interesting how very against Palin some of them are... Like she's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Anyway, good news from the Hoosier state.
hey, did you see obama on letterman last night. dave slammed mccain and palin in his opening and then sat and interviewed obama through at least 3 commercial breaks. i don't think he even did the top 10 last night. it was weird and cool.
it also made me miss hawaii a lot. i didn't expect that reaction. it also made me peeved that people on the mainland still don't consider hawaii to be a state, or treat it like it's some crazy foreign culture... i'm just going to throw this out: hawaii is perhaps one of the most patriotic states in the union if not the most. it's a state. they eat a lot of spam. get over it.
anyway, it was really a great interview.
I hate being sick. The nose blowing. The pressure behind my eyes. My eyes feeling like they're on fire. Feeling like a zombie. Gah. Sneeze coming on. Out.
We saw Hustle and Flow last night. It was pretty good, thought I'm not sure I like the final message: if you almost kill somebody and get put in jail, it will help you make the big time. Anthony Anderson put on a surprisingly good performance. I like him more and more as I see him in stuff, whether it's Transformers or Law & Order. Terrence Howard was also pretty solid, though about the least violent pimp I've seen portayed on film.
You actually don't have to care about baseball to like this rant on megatokyo about Japanese baseball:
http://www.megatokyo.com/rant/928
I warned him! Now he's in my blog.
Now, here's a Jonas Brothers' video:
I'm not Impressed.
We saw "The Dark Knight" once again last night, and it definitely holds up. It's a truly amazing movie that will be the standard for adult superhero movies. Since this was the first time we saw "The Dark Knight" outside of IMAX, it was also the first time to see the previews before it. I read an interview w/the director/writer of the new "Watchmen" movie and i thought it seemed like it could be good enough to be in league "The Dark Knight." Now that I've seen the preview for it, I'm pretty sure it will stand on equal footing w/the "The Dark Knight."
Stick that in your cap!
You could have told me I'd be crying at 2 in the morning trying not to shake the bed with my sobs. I should have known a quarter of the way through the book. What tragedies fear brings. What triumph does forgiveness. Thank you for this journey.
I saw a deer today on my way to work. It was just after I dropped Akemi off at her work. It sprinted out in front of my car as I approached a stop sign. It came out of this 1 block sized park and was headed up towards Washington Park. It was beautiful. Thankfully it wasn't injured and seemed to be heading the right way. It's weird, but I feel a very strong connection with that deer, like it was my friend. I am definitely in awe at the odd happenings of my life.
The Dark Knight. It was more than awesome. I would tell you more, but you would kill me.
See this movie!
