Virtual Thought

We all love the taste of bacon, and now there’s an easy way to baconify just about anything. Yes friends, Bacon Salt is upon us and it’s as delicious as it sounds. Bacon salt, which incidentally is zero calorie, vegetarian and kosher, is a magic new seasoning that adds the salty, porky taste of bacon to all your favorite foods.

I recently received samples of all three varieties – hickory, peppered, and original, and have been putting them through their paces the last few days. So far I’ve found it to be good stuff. I’ve tried it on hamburgers, spinach salad, soup, breakfast tacos, and grilled cheese sandwiches. The only thing it turns out not to be good in was coffee (not suprisingly). By far the most unexpected goodness I discovered was “bacon popcorn”.

Notably interesting is that the guys behind this great invention funded the company on prize money from Americas Home Videos. Only in America, I’m so proud…. (sniff).

Seriously, this is good stuff. I’m bringing some to the office, nothing makes left overs and cheap microwave dinners palatable like a little bacon. You can buy some for yourself on their web site.

from the frickin iphone! Okay, that’s it… ( =

I really do think too much about this stuff sometimes.

I haven’t written a “big blog” entry for a while not just because my tumblelog is merrily hopping along with several entries a day, but also because I’m ruminating on the nature of my blogging.

With my need for a “Hey, look at this,” soapbox filled by tumblr, where do I go from here? What does this blog become about? What sort of entry do I write now?

Once my vanity site opens up I have the possibility of having three blogs. How do I categorize my entries then? Is one my “professional” blog, one my “personal”, and my tumblelog remains the “miscellaneous” one? I don’t know.

Combined with my recent thinking about online identity I’m left with a need for clarification. So that’s what’s going on with me.

Just to get this prediction out there…

In the next Zune release, Microsoft will release either their own RSS format for podcasting or extensions to RSS to better control the “end-to-end” experience of the Zune.

Re-thinking the blog. Stay tuned.

So I was already in love with Quicksilver. But, lately, my love affair has reached unhealthy levels. Seriously.

Besides the Yojimbo plug-in (which is super-handy) I found out these OTHER cool things!

Let’s say that I need Quicksilver to remind me about something in 10 minutes. So I hit Command-Space, hit ’.’ so I can type some random text in (“Leave the house!”), then hit tab. The first choice is Display as Large Text. So I hit CTRL+Return. That takes the saved Quicksilver command (Display as Large Text) and, if you scroll down, you can choose Run after Delay… When you hit Return, you can then type in “10m”, hit Return again… and voila! “Leave the house!” in 10 minutes! I’m in love!

But it gets better!

Suppose I download the web search module… then suppose I go to Catalog > Custom… I then hit the ’+’ and add this URL:

http://www.yubnub.org/parser/parse?command=***

...and I give it the name ‘ys’. Now I can do cool stuff like hit Command-Space, type ‘ys’ (Yubnub Search) and hit return, then type ‘gim scarlett johansson’... and I have neato Google images of Scarlett Johansson because of Yubnub.

Ooh! Ooh! And what about this?

http://www.google.com/search?q=-inurl%3A%28htm%7Chtml%7Cphp%29+intitle%3A%22index+of%22+%2B%22last+modified%22+%2B%22parent+directory%22+%2Bdescription+%2Bsize+%2B%28wma%7Cmp3%29+%22***%22&btnG=Search

So, yeah, buried in there is a Google search for MP3s (or WMAs) across sites with parent directories named, uh, well, whatever (like “Nine Inch Nails” or “Björk” or whatever). So maybe I’ll name it ‘ms’ (Music Search) and now have a great, Quicksilvery way of searching for music online!

Wow.

I was talking to some friends of mine about the various levels of covert surveillance they have their children under.

Apparently, waiting up in a bathrobe as your child sneaks through the backdoor at three in the morning isn’t enough… now we should listen in on our child’s IM conversations and install cameras to watch their behavior at the door.

I am not a parent. I have little real-world experience regarding concern for my child’s safety. I can imagine that I’d want to do almost everything in my power to ensure that my child escaped the rigors of childhood free form unspeakable horror.

This, however, goes too far. I think one of the goals of raising children is to raise responsible adults who can function well in society.