Shabbir's Diary

Max Payne

One of the reasons I've not bought an Xbox (besides having the use of one at work) is because there's nothing besides Halo that I want to play on it. I'm not into Sports Games, and so all the football, basketball, and baseball games are right out. One of my colleagues, John Linden, told me about Max Payne. John has pretty refined tastes, (he's also a huge Busta Rhymes fan) and so when I was in CompUSA on a plastic-induced buying spree recently, I picked up a copy of Max thinking I would get tired of it in a few days and sell it back in a while. I was so wrong.

Kinkos

Ok, I just went into a Kinko's and was blown away.

If you have even the scantest amount of memory, and you're over 30, you remember that Kinko's used to be copy machines. I just ended up going into Kinko's to have them copy and bind a color presentation for me ($800 ugh!) and was stunned.

Haiku about dogs

These haiku describe my dogs' idyllic lives. If only we were all dogs.

Safdar Radio

Ok, this is a shameless plug.

Take a moment and check out Sarah's and my radio station at http://mindsha2.iserver.net:8000/

Barren Lands by Kevin Krajick

If you're an American, you probably don't know squat about geography in the US, much less Canada. Ever look at a map of North America? Well it turns out that it's not just trees in Canada that suddenly turn into icebergs as you get farther north. Up at the northern reaches are an incredibly deserted place called the Barren Lands. The place looks like the moon or Mars, with no vegetation, and flat rocks as far as the eye can see. There's nothing up there. Well, almost nothing. Turns out it's got the largest source of diamonds in North America. And copper, and gold, etc...

My recent devourings

Here are the last four of my book devourings with short comments.

Fresh salmon roe at Kaz's!

Check out this note from Kaz:

Fresh salmon roe is back in season! We get over-night express fresh salmon roe in sacks directly from the fisherman of the Quinault River, Washington State. We spend hours separating thousands of eggs from the sack and then marinade them in sake and soy sauce. It tastes totally different from regular salt preserved salmon roe. Today we got very big roe from King Salmon.

I can't believe you're still reading this, go get 'em before they're gone!

Update: We went to Kaz's last night 9/16/2002 and tried the fresh roe. It really was quite delicious. Because of the added soy sauce, it was saltier than the last time he prepared it, though.

0716740265

I'm fascinated by diamonds, their history, and the history of the industry that provides them to us.

Subscribing to my blog

If you wish to receive notifications of when this is updated by me or when anyone else writes for it, put in a request in the comments. I'll add your email and then delete it from the comments so that spambots can't harvest it.

Got Blood?

Ah, fall. That time of year when every young man's fancy turns to football, the upcoming hockey season, and the safety of the nation's blood supply. Say what? It's true. We're having yet another blood supply scare. They seem like they're coming annually now. HIV, Hepatitus C, Mad Cow, and now West Nile virus has been found in the nation's blood supply. If that hasn't sufficiently scared you, you ought to check out 'Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce'.