Chuggnutt!

Author: Jon

  • The Bulletin’s reference

    I got a copy of Wednesday’s Bulletin today (the Community Life section) that mentions my blog (see The Bulletin quoting my site?). The article is about both Reynolds Pond and Mayfield Pond, both east of Bend, as little-known oases in the desert. I wasn’t quoted directly, but I got a paragraph:

    Go to www.chuggnutt.com and you’ll find a wistful description of Reynolds Pond written by a person who spent a lot of time out there as a child. On a return visit 12 years later, the author noted that several barren islands in the pond were now covered with vegetation.

    That sounds about right. I don’t know about spending “a lot of time out there” but I did write that I frequented the pond growing up, so that’s fair, I guess.

    Jim Witty, the Bulletin’s travel writer (I think), wrote the article. When we used to get the paper, I enjoyed the accounts of Oregon and beyond he would write for the weekend travel section. Thanks, Jim!

  • Vermont Country Store

    A follow-up to my Scrapple post the other day: that post was inspired by a catalog for the Vermont Country Store (“Purveyors of the Practical & Hard-To-Find”) that inexplicably appeared on the desk of a co-worker last week. It’s a neat store, and I like the website; they sell all sorts of quality, unusual, nostalgic, and/or useful things like this Uncle Sam Bank (I had one of those!) or this Vacuum Coffee Maker or, yes, a Can of Scrapple.

  • The Bulletin quoting my site?

    We don’t get the Bend Bulletin anymore, so I missed this, but apparently yesterday the Bulletin ran an article in their Community section (which they don’t post online) wherein they quoted my blog on the subject of Reynolds Pond (with attribution—to my blog, but not to me by name). I found out today when my mom told me about it, and then someone at work told me they saw it, also.

    I’ll get a copy, and I’ll definitely comment on it when I do, but in the meantime, has anyone else seen this?

  • Scrapple

    What’s scrapple? According to Wikipedia, it’s

    a cornmeal pudding in which the cornmeal, perhaps with the addition of buckwheat, is simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then cooled and hardened into a loaf.

    Scrapple is one of those farm foods invented to use those parts of slaughtered food animals which were not suitable to be served on their own, in the same manner as sausages, or Jewish kishkes. Scrapple typically contains the meaty parts of hog heads, hearts, some liver, and other scraps. The proportion and spicing is very much a matter of the region, family, and the cook’s taste.

    Commercial scrapple will often contain these traditional ingredients, with a distinctive flavor to each brand, though homemade recipes often specify more genteel ingredients, and consequently a blander taste.

    Scrapple is typically cut into thin slices, fried until the outsides form a crust, and eaten at breakfast in a similar manner to bacon or sausage. It may be eaten as is, or served with maple syrup, apple butter, ketchup, mustard, and/or butter.

    I just loves me some pork scraps!

  • Bend Bulletin article: Tech Town

    The Bend Bulletin (our local newspaper) has an interesting article online today: Tech Town, a profile of the local computer/tech industry and how it’s pulling “young, technically savvy people” to the area.

    The conventional wisdom is that Bend is a great place to retire, but increasingly it is a great place for young, technically savvy people to live and work, too.

    Bend officials envision an industrial park and university campus at the north end of town. The so-called Juniper Ridge project could become the cornerstone of an invigorated regional economy based on science, engineering and innovation.

    If those companies materialize as planned, they will bring even more skilled workers to the region, workers like Marshall Simmonds, Morgan O’Neal and [Chris] Reese.

    All three pointed to the character of Bend and outdoor recreation as drawing and keeping them here. That foundation, they said, makes the region ripe for new technology companies that will need to attract talented young workers.

    The three people they profile are Chris Reese, technical director for Sony Bend (whom I’ve blogged about before); Morgan O’Neal (“a throwback to some of the early entrepreneurs of computing and the Internet. He has little formal training in technology”—is the Bulletin trying to be complimentary here? jeez), web developer with my old employer, Alpine Internet; and Marshall Simmonds, vice president of Enterprise Search Marketing for The New York Times Company by way of About.com. That’s a pretty diverse group, considering.

    Still, it’s not entirely news that Bend is a high-tech region; technology is one of the industries that’s been growing like a weed for at least a decade (along with tourism) since the older industries like logging have been waning. Even so, this part is intriguing:

    City officials and local business leaders for the last few years talked about bringing more high-tech companies to the community. Most recently, the city has been eyeing the Juniper Ridge project as a potential home for such businesses.

    The first phase of Juniper Ridge development is already in the works, the city having annexed 500 acres it owns on the northeast edge of town. The city will select a master developer for the project, but the council is working with the region’s legislative delegation in Salem to site a four-year university there that can complement a contemplated high-tech industrial park.

    Almost sounds like the play Klamath Falls made for high tech (“Silicon Basin,” anyone?)—the difference being, of course, that Bend is already supporting a viable tech industry. But what’s this about a university? Ah, I see from this Bend.com press release that it appears to be for OSU-Cascades and possibly Cascades Academy of Central Oregon. Interesting.

  • Not much to speak of

    Don’t have much to write about. Okay, that’s not totally true; I’ve got some things I want to write about, but they’ll run long and that’s not really what I feel like doing at nearly 11:30 at night. The topics? You’ll see why I’d run long:

    • Evolution
    • Ebooks
    • Reviews of some regular books I’m reading

    So instead, tonight, I’ll stick with the mundane things that tend to bore the hell out of people…

    We steam cleaned the carpet this last weekend. It’s amazing how much dirt and pet hair had accumulated in the ten months we’ve been living here. Amazing and gross. Makes me want to get rid of all the pets.

    This next weekend we need to dethatch the lawn and try to restore parts of it. I hate lawn maintenance. Makes me want to get rid of all the grass.

    The week before last, when I was sick, it turned out I had a bronchial sinus infection. I ended up getting antibiotics to get rid of it, which is something I almost never have to do.

    I’ve been teaching my five year old to play checkers. She’s got a good grasp of the rules, though needs to learn strategy and how to see the big picture. I’m pretty impressed by how quickly she picked it up, though. I have a feeling the strategy part will come to her pretty fast and then I’ll be frustrated at how I get beat every time :)

  • Sesame Street top 25

    This is classic: Sesame Street: 25 Of My Favorite Memories. I kept reading it and nodding. And you’ve gotta give props to someone for coming up with possibly the funniest line I’ve read in a long time:

    Oh yeah, & if there’s one thing I hate more than those stickers of Calvin peeing on something, it’s the jokes about Bert & Ernie being gay, or Bert being evil, or whatever. Next time you mention it, I’m going to unearth a skyscraper with my bare hands, wear it like a brass knuckle, & punch you in the face.

    Yeah, I’m funny that way.

    Via Boing Boing.

  • Extending daylight savings time?

    This may possibly be the dumbest idea ever: Congress may extend daylight-saving time. Come on, are you kidding me? What a monumental waste of… well, everything. Jesus Christ, if you really need that “extra” hour of daylight, just get up an hour earlier.

    And that whole “The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use” line is a crock of shit, too. Think about it.

    Yeah, strong feelings against it. I’ve ranted about daylight savings before. I just think the whole concept is buffoonish.

    Wikipedia, as usual, has an excellent article on daylight savings, worth reading.

  • Globe

    Today at work my friend Kerry and I were talking about geography and globes, which was prompted by the Yahooligans Where in the World is? game (where you see if you know your world geography), and came up with what I think would be the perfect globe: an interactive one whose outer surface is a touch-sensitive LCD screen that has all the details projected onto it from the inside. Think about it: it’s basically a spherical computer screen, so it could always be up-to-date with new political country borders—download new data to it via a USB connection to your computer—and facts about each country; a touch-sensitive surface means you could simply poke a country to get information about it, or play games on it (find the country); it could be custom color-coded; it could be animated; you could even load other planets onto it, say Mars, Jupiter, or even a fictional one. It would have to be programmable, of course, so hackers could customize the hell out of it.

    A cursory search online reveals this: The Explorer Globe from LeapFrog. It’s similar to what I’m thinking:

    Touch the interactive pen any place on this interactive, talking atlas and learn thousands of amazing facts. Compare population and land area between say Dundee, Scotland and Oaxaca, Mexico. Find out flying times between Lubbock, Texas and Kyoto, Japan. Learn fascinating facts about continents, countries, capitals, music, currency, highest points and so much more.

    There is also a “Eureka” game mode that prompts players to find geographic points of interest (giving hints along the way) before time runs out. Up to four players can play six multi-level games with this very chatty, very challenging atlas. And it isn’t just for kids either. Everyone will have fun testing their knowledge of geography and exploring the world.

    Sounds cool. Sadly, I’m pretty sure technology isn’t advanced enough yet to come up with my perfect globe. When it is, though, I want royalties.

  • How it should be done

    I got this really nice comment on my restaurant post last month, where I reviewed Zydeco, Anthony’s and Mercury Diner here in Bend:

    We just wanted to say Thank You! to Jon & Andrew. Thanks for your great reviews of our restaurant. We’re glad to hear you’ve enjoyed your experiences with us and that you’re excited about passing on some input to future guests. We look forward to seeing you at ZYDECO kitchen & cocktails again soon.

    Sincerely,
    Christy & Robert Kabakoff and Steve Helt

    That is one of the reasons why Zydeco is a great restaurant, and it shows that the owners are smart and web-savvy to Google themselves and aren’t afraid to join the conversation. Contrast that to Shannon and Simone‘s poor experience with Kanpai.

    Not hard to figure out why I’ll go back to Zydeco in a heartbeat but won’t bother trying Kanpai.