As always, click the images for larger views.

Brooklyn During Semi Final Against Andy Murray

Andy Relieved After Tough Set in Andy Murray Semi Final

You go Guy!

More Fans Once Andy Murray Lost (during Federer match)

Andy Arguably Plays Best Tennis of his Life in Wimbledon 2009 Semis and Finals

Brooklyn Cheers During Federer Final

Sadness in Defeat

Gracious Speech & Trophy Ceremony

[Note: Rogers is somehow still blocking Pandora and Skype even when I removed the SIM  card. Grrr! Here’s a Skype iPhone App workaround for Canadians – I haven’t tried it yet.]

Setup is a breeze. It took me about two minutes. You essentially set up a VPN connection to the U.S. through the HotSpot Shield servers. This, of course, would also be useful for safe surfing at coffee shops and other wifi locations.

Once you have set up your account, configured and activated the VPN (see instructions below), navigate to the App Store on your iPhone. Search for the app you want and (if its there) download it. It’s that simple.

Survives Desktop Sync

I was concerned that if I downloaded apps this way, they would be wiped out after I synced my iPhone with iTunes to my desktop. Not so. The sync went fine and the apps remained on the iPhone.

No Need to Keep VPN Turned On

You only need to activate the VPN to download the app. Once downloaded, you can use the app with the VPN shut off.

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS

These instructions were cribbed from the Hotspot Shield site here. See that site for pictures and any updated instructions. You’ll need to go there anyway to get an account (with only one mouse click) as described below.

Configure iPhone

Make sure that Wi-Fi is marked "OFF" in: 
Settings -> Wi-Fi

Then find the VPN settings in:
Settings -> General -> Network -> VPN -> Add VPN Configuration:

• Select the L2TP tab/pane
• Description: HotspotShield
• Server: 64.55.144.10
• Account: [insert account number – see below]
• RSA SecurID: OFF
• Password: [insert password – see below]
• Secret: password
• Send all traffic: ON

Get Account & Password

Getting an account is easy. Click on the GetAccountID button on this page. With one click you’ll have your account and password. You’ll need to fill them into the appropriate place as indicated above.

Save Settings

You are now done. Save the settings and hit the "HOME" button to quit. Make sure to turn Wi-Fi back "ON".

Activate

To activate Hotspot Shield on your iPhone, the VPN setting needs to be turned on. From "HOME" menu, go to Settings and click the "On" tab for VPN. Your Status will change to "CONNECTED" and the VPN icon will appear on top in the iPhone Tray when complete. If you cannot connect to the VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn the VPN to "ON".

If you cannot connect to VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn VPN to "ON" in "Settings".

Where do you diverge from the pop culture consensus?

—- MOVIES —-

Jar Jar Binks

I liked Jar Jar Binks. What else is there to say. I thought he was an amusing character. I was happy to see him return in Attack of the Clones and the Clone Wars.

  Gigli

I didn’t think Gigli sucked. It was far from great. It would probably rate 2 out of 5 Dale-heads if I were to review it formally. But it doesn’t deserve to be the butt of all jokes and one of the most lambasted movies of all time.

The English Patient

If there ever was a more boring, self-indulgent, overly-hyped movie, than The English Patient, I don’t know  what it is. It was cathartic to see the fictional Seinfeld character Elaine Benes hate on the movie in the English Patient episode!   This is probably the only thing I ever agreed with the Elaine character on.

Citizen Kane

I’m a classic movie fan. Citizen Kane is consistently at the top of the AFI 100 and other top movie lists. I vehemently disagree. While Orson Wells had some interesting moments, not only should it not belong on any ‘best movie’ lists, I consider it to be in the bottom 20% of all the movies I’ve seen – and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve sat down to review it twice. If/when I complete it, I’ll post my review and link it here.

 —- MUSIC —-

Michael Jackson

Yes, he’s a little wacky. Aren’t most geniuses? If he molested boys, that cannot be condoned.Whether or not he ‘did it’, he’s still one of the most dynamic and interesting performers I’ve ever witnessed.

Beatles

I have never thought the Beatles were any better than your average band. I have never understood why they are so beloved. I don’t like many of their songs.

 —- TV —- 

The Office

The few times I watched this show, it made me cringe. It’s one uncomfortable moment after the other. You couldn’t pay me to watch this show.

 —- SPORTS —-

Sharapova and Kournikova

Tennis is my favourite professional sport to watch. It drives me to distraction to see the media focus so much attention on Maria Sharapova and her predecessor to the tennis beauty-queen crown, Anna Kournikova. It particularly disturbs me that the networks will cover the tennis matches of the cuties over the better player matches. I want to watch quality tennis – not pretty faces and accentuated curves at the expense of the sport.  I’m concerned that Ana Ivanovic may be falling into the same beauty before athletics trap.

3 Set Matches in Women’s Grand Slam Tennis

Sticking to my belief that tennis should be about fitness and athletics, I can’t understand why women’s grand slam tennis matches are limited to 3 sets when the men’s matches are 5 set matches. Women’s hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball etc. teams do not play on smaller courts or for shorter amounts of time. Fitness and endurance should play as much a role in deciding who the best women players are as they do on the  men’s side. The recently retired Justine Henin is the poster girl for fit and athletic women tennis players. I want to see more players like her. We need 5 set women’s matches for them to rise to the top. I firmly believe that one of the reasons women’s tennis matches are typically not of the quality of the men’s matches is because 3 set matches hold women to a lower standard.

Hockey

I’m a Canadian and I don’t like hockey. There I said it. If there was anything that American’s found surprising about me when I lived in California, this is it. My opinion would change somewhat if fighting was removed from the sport. But not by much. In my opinion, any player that starts a fight should be banned from hockey for 1 year. If he does it again he should be banned for life – period!

In a previous post I wrote about how to use marbles and the vacu vin pump to preserve open wine.  In a terrific Globe & Mail video (shown above but now removed) Beppi Crosariol demonstrates the following additional approaches:

• Using the Inert Argon Gas: I had used the inert argon gas method in the past with mixed results. Until I watched the video, I didn’t fully understand how to use it or why/how it worked. I didn’t understand, for example, that argon is heavier than air. It doesn’t fill the bottle. Rather it covers the wine like a blanket. Because it sinks down to the wine, you don’t need to worry about it leaking out of the top as you re-cork the bottle. Place the straw against the inside neck of the bottle. Spray for one second followed by a few short bursts. Reseal with any cork. This should keep the wine for up to three weeks. These argon bottles cost between $12-$15 ($8ish in the U.S.) and can be found at most liquor stores (click here to purchase argon gas on Amazon.com). Note: To keep the ‘blanket of argon’ over the wine (and away from the air in the bottle above the blanket), you’ll want to make sure you don’t shake/bump the wine too much while being stored – so keeping it in the fridge door probably is not a good idea.
• Small Wine Bottles: Pour the remains of a big bottle of wine into a smaller wine bottle. Then recork. If you fill the smaller bottle, there will be no (or very little) air left in the bottle to react with the wine. The wine will keep indefinitely.

• Plastic Water Bottles:  If you don’t have small wine bottles handy you can use a small plastic water bottle in a pinch. Inelegant, but functional. He implies that using plastic will limit the life of the wine to 5 days. I’ll need to test this out.
• Storing in Fridge: This is a tough sell for me with reds. Nothing destroys the taste of a good red wine more than drinking it cold. But, the cold impedes chemical reactions that destroy wine. Just remember to remove it from the fridge 3 to 4 hours before serving. Ideally you’d use one of the methods described above before storing the result in the fridge.
• Vacu Vin Pump Method: See my post here for a discussion of the vacu vin pump.

I have used the vacu vin pump method for years. But, as Beppi points out, removing the oxygen with the pump also removes flavor. Also, I can attest to the fact that this technique only really saves the wine for a couple days.

For most of today there has been a protest below my window (Young and Front – Toronto) driving me crazy, frazzling my nerves and inhibiting my ability to get work done.

I decided to find out what the heck this was about and typed in “Toronto Protest” into Google News. The FIRST result that came up was this CBC article, ironically containing the picture to the left.

The picture shows the protest directly below me. The arrow (which I added) points to the building I am typing this from.  I feel like I’m being personally protested.  These guys are insanely loud!

According to the CBC article linked above, they are protesting the Canada’s adding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to its official list of terrorist organizations in 2006 for the group’s use of suicide bombers and child soldiers in the conflict.

[June 25, 2009 Update: I was able to download Lose It! using Hotspot Shield on the iPhone. See my post: “How to Use Hotspot Shield to Get U.S.-only iPhone Apps” for details.]

As a Canadian long suffering the woes of countless U.S. web-based and other consumer applications, products and services not being available here, I had been extraordinarily happy with the understanding that iPhone apps would not be blocked by national borders.

After hearing so many comments on how terrific the ‘Lose It!’ iPhone App was, I decided to try it out today. When I tried to access it I got this error message:

Sad, very sad!

As a single person, I frequently open a bottle of wine and drink just a glass or two. Over the years, I’ve experimented with different ways of saving the wine in open bottles. For the last couple years I’ve used the vacu vin stainless steel wine saver pump to remove air from the bottle to store it for another day. Unfortunately this method only keeps the wine for a day or two max. And, the emptier the bottle the less well it works.

I asked our Café Taste host, Jeremy Day (pictured below), if he had any other suggestions to preserve an open bottle of wine.  He came up with the remarkably sensible suggestion of  putting sterilized marbles into the bottle and then recorking. What a clever idea!

The marbles fill up the empty bottle, move the wine to the top and push all the air out before resealing. The idea sounds brilliant. But I haven’t tried it yet. I will report back once I have.

This technique will require some practical way of dish-washing the glass marbles between each such use. I found a way to safely wash wine glasses in the dishwasher. I’m sure I’ll figure out a good way to wash marbles if the idea works.

Another suggestion he had was to place opened, recorked bottles in the fridge. I have always used the vacu vin pump and placed the bottle back on the counter. Jeremy advises that a chilled wine oxidizes more slowly than a bottle of wine at room temperature. Good to know.

FYI, Café Taste is a terrific place to taste wines. Highly recommended.

Café Taste Reviews:  Now Magazine | Eye Weekly | Martin Boys | Digital Journal | TasteTO.com

           

The men and women who follow the advice in ‘The Professional Bachelor’ and ‘The Rules’ deserve each other. Someone should put them in a ring and let them fight it out!

A friend once recommended I check out ‘The Rules’. Presumably she thought it would help me better understand women. I didn’t think any book reflecting the male’s perspective could be as objectionable as ‘The Rules’ until I recently discovered the ‘The Professional Bachelor’.

The Rules

The full title is: ‘The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right’ (click here to read excerpts). A more apt title would be: ‘The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Manipulating Brain-Dead, Money-Pot, Neanderthals  into Marriage’.

I read it back in 2001, standing in a bookstore while waiting for a long delayed connecting flight. I was appalled. It depicted dating much the way dating is portrayed in ‘Sex & the City’ – with a world full of shallow, self-cantered individuals, intentionally manipulating members of the opposite sex to gain twisted advantage. Do these people really exist en masse? I rarely meet them.

At the time, I wrote a rather long email to my friend expressing how revolted I was. The book assumes that all men are self-centred, disgusting beasts needing to be captured and saved from themselves. I also remember thinking that: (i) only the stupidest of men could be duped into marriage by women using these tactics; and (ii) if any woman used these techniques on me, I’d be out the nearest exit pretty quickly. Perhaps I’m not the kind of guy that readers of The Rules are after. And its just as well.

The Professional Bachelor

A few weeks ago, an ad for ‘The Professional Bachelor’ (click here to read excerpts), caught my attention – ironically within the Amazon.com ads on this site.  This review by Lindsay McConnell, a psychology professor, caught my attention:

When you take away the chest pounding and witty shock value, this book is about creating opportunities with the right women, and avoiding the nightmares of dating the wrong ones. The author obviously has a background in psychology, and provides very introspective and effective Alpha male self-improvement advice. This isn’t a nightclub pickup artist book for frat boys.

Having recently dipped my toes back into the world of dating, I purchased the book – perhaps for some tips, but mostly for amusement. (I wonder if Amazon will pay a commission on my purchase – ha! )

After reading through a few chapters, it occurred to me that the women who wrote ‘The Rules’ must have been dating men inspired by books like ‘The Professional Bachelor’. I’m rather revolted by most of the advice in this book and more disgusted by the way women are depicted.

But something happened along the way. The ‘The Professional Bachelor’ is simultaneously off-putting and ‘laugh-out-loud’ funny. And, as the psychology teacher suggested, a few nuggets of truth are buried here and there.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so  hard on ‘The Rules’. I’m gathering its huge sales reflects a reality that a large number of women that been hurt by such men. It probably resonates with women in a way that is inverse to how/why The Professional Bachelor resonates a bit with me.

I will leave my copy lying around to see what kind of reaction I get from my friends.

Clearly, I’m not a sophisticated dater because I’ll still believe that the best dating advice is to be honest, learn to communicate well, be upbeat, empathize and present the best person that you truly are. That and always brush your teeth!

Marc Spagnuolo (pictured in the third image below) was recently a guest on Leo Laporte’s TwitLive webcast. He was inspired by Leo to create TheWoodWhisperer podcast. He built this customized gadget recharging cabinet for Leo as a gift in thanks for  inspiring him to start his own podcast. Leo loved it. I like it.

[more pics after the jump – click on pics for larger views]

The bottom shelf is designed to hold the power bar/surge protector. Power chords then run up from the bottom but still inside. Connector cables to other devices can run out the back.

The pieces on the back are magnetized so they can be easily removed, as necessary, to accommodate the wires.

I think it is designed to sit on the floor but I’d want something like this to hang on the wall – or at least sit on something so I don’t have to kneel down to use it. It would be too low sitting on a floor. However you mount/position it, you’d need to easily get in behind to thread the wires as gadgets come and go. As you can see from the picture below (taken the next day), Leo placed it on top of a larger cabinet behind him.

 See also: Blog Post on The WoodWhisperer.com site.

In the early days of console gaming, about 25% or so of all games made me nauseous, dizzy or gave me headaches to the point where I couldn’t play them. A prime example was Deus Ex: Invisible War. I enjoyed the game and wanted to continue playing it. But I couldn’t play for more than 15 minutes without becoming dizzy and nauseous. Ultimately, I had to abandon the game.

[Updated May 25, 2009. Added first person bobbing-while-walking factor.]

In the current (Xbox 360/PS3) console generation, the percentage of games that are unplayable due to nausea, headaches or dizziness has dropped dramatically to, perhaps, 5 to 10%. For example, I couldn’t play the otherwise enjoyable Laura Croft: Tomb Raider Legend for more than 15 minutes without feeling ill.

Below, I identify three four factors that cause me dizziness, headaches and nausea when playing video games.  I also list specific games that have made me sick.

I’d be interested in your thoughts – especially with respect to what might be behind the X-Factor discussed below.

Nausea Caused by Aggressive Camera Centering / Fighting

When a game gives me only partial control of the camera, especially when I need to fight the game for camera control, this makes me nauseous every time. Ironically, when a game takes total control of the camera from me, such as in God of War 2, I do not get nauseous.

The poster-child for this type of camera-control-fighting-induced nausea is the entire Resident Evil series. Not only does the game st0p you from moving your character wherever you wish (they are all ‘on rails’ games), the game aggressively fights the player for control of the camera by constantly pulling the camera back to the center every time the player looks hither or thither. Rumor has it that the forthcoming Resident Evil 5 might finally hand camera control to the player where it belongs. Surprisingly, this is controversial.  I won’t be playing RE5 unless this problem is finally fixed. [Spring 2009 Update: The reviews for RE5 were so bad, I’m not even going to bother trying it.]

Each of the recent Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Battlefield: Bad Company, Resistance Fall of Man, Grand Theft Auto IV (but only when driving) and Star Wars, Force Unleashed (but only while moving) games fought me over the camera somewhat. This resulted in mild dizziness. Happily the implementation of camera centering in each of these games wasn’t aggressive enough to cause me to abandon the games over the issue.

Nausea Caused by No Y-Axis Inversion Option

The first console-based video game I ever played was Pilot Wings, on the N-64. As a flying game, it naturally featured inverted Y-axis controls. A dozen years and a hundred or so games later, I have inverted the Y-axis on every console game I’ve played since.

If I can’t invert the y-axis I can’t play. Non-inverted game play makes me instantly nauseous. My brain is wired in such a way that when I pull the right stick back, my brain expects the camera to move up. When the camera goes the opposite way it is very disorienting.

There are very few games now-a-days that do not provide the inverted control option. Indeed, inverting the Y-axis is so common that the Xbox 360 can be set to automatically configure every game I play with the Y-axis inverted.

I was astonished to discover that Silent Hill: Homecoming does not allow players to invert the Y-axis for normal viewing (it does have a limited Y-inversion option for shooting when the gun is wielded).  As I wrote here, the game was unplayable. I had to abandon it.

Dizziness Caused by First Person Bobbing While Walking

I first wrote this post in October 2008. In late May 2009 I played F.E.A.R. 2 and remembered another cause of dizziness – the screen bobbing while a character walks. In F.E.A.R. 2 and several other first-person video games, the screen bobs up and down as the character moves. The bobbing, I gather, corresponds with the cadence of the character’s walk. This doesn’t make me dizzy or nauseous as quickly as the other factors discussed in this post, but I can usually only play a game that does this for an hour or so before becoming dizzy. The game is not unplayable, but it has to be taken in light doses.

Nausea Caused by the X-Factor – Possibly Frame Rate

Finally, there is a class of game that makes me seriously dizzy or nauseous even when I have full control over the camera and the Y-axis is properly inverted (see list below).

I’ve never fully understood, absent the camera/Y-axis issues, why some games make me dizzy and nauseous while others do not. I’ve always assumed it was a frame-rate issue. I’d be keen for any of you to suggest other possible causes.

Whatever the reason, such was recently the case with Mercenaries 2. The game gave me complete camera control and I had happily inverted the Y-axis but it still made me nauseous to play.

List of Games Causing Dizziness / Nausea

Below is a list of games that have made me seriously dizzy or nauseous. I also list the underlying game engine in parenthesis. Note how many games are built on versions of the Unreal and  id Tech engines. I intend to expand the list over time as I remember them:

PC:

• Half Life 2 (Valve’s Source Engine): Enjoyed it so much I pushed through about 80% it. But, to this day, just the sounds of that game (the gravity gun in particular) make me woozy.

Original Xbox:

• Brothers in Arms: Earned Blood (Unreal Engine 2)
• Brute Force (?): Finished it anyways given how hyped it was – didn’t really enjoy it much
• Deus Ex: Invisible War (heavily modified Unreal Engine 2)
• Doom 3 (id Tech 4): Finished the game anyway – holding my cookies the whole way)
• Psi-Ops (Unreal Engine 2)
• Return to Castle Wolvenstein (id Tech 3): Finished it anyway but wasn’t that good.
• TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (??)
• Unreal Championship (Unreal Engine 2): Couldn’t play for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Xbox 360:

• F.E.A.R. 2 – (Valve’s Source Engine): First person bobbing while walking issue
• Half-Life 2 – Episodes 1 and 2 (Valve’s Source Engine)
• King Kong (Ubisoft’s Jade engine): Bad game – pushed through just for the easy achievements
• Laura Croft: Tomb Raider Legend (Crystal Dynamics Proprietary):  I enjoyed it so much I pushed through about 40% of it before I had to stop because I couldn’t take it any more.
• Mercenaries 2 (EA proprietary)
• Perfect Dark Zero (Havok’s HyrdaCore): Thank goodness the game was  horrible – I didn’t miss much
• Quake 4 (id Tech 4): Abysmal game.
• Prey (modified id Tech 4): Also pushed through about 75% despite extreme dizziness.

PS3:

(Note, the numbers are fewer here because,  if given a choice, I play the 360 version of a game. Each platform is an equal opportunity nausea causer.)

• The Darkness  (Starbreeze Engine)
• Resistance Fall of Man (Insomniac Engine): Caused only mild nausea. I was not nauseous when I played its sequel. I note that it’s sequel, Resistance 2, did not make me dizzy or nauseous.
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Naughty Dog Proprietary) – Best PS3 game yet!

Conclusion

Thankfully, better graphics, higher frame rates and the abandonment of nausea-inducing camera controller techniques is making gamer illness increasingly a thing of the past. Unfortunately, as the recent games Silent Hill: Homecoming and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames have shown, we still have a way to go.

I was delighted to see the 99¢ “White Noise” app on the iPhone’s App Store “Top 25 Paid”  list. I thought for 99¢ I couldn’t go wrong. Turns out White Noise wasn’t so useful. So I went on to check out its competitors, Ambiance and aSleep, each of which are also 99¢.

They  all provide essentially the same functionality – selectable looping sounds that can be set to turn off after a preset amount of time. But they all suffer from the same two problems:

1. Sound Loops That are Way Too Short: Almost all of the sound loops are far too short (5 to 15 seconds) and, for the most part, annoying for someone trying to fall asleep. Because they are so short, with distinct, identifiable sounds, they sound like broken records that begin to grate on your exhausted nerves quickly.
2. Jarring Sounds: While many of the sound loops are soothing, most contain at least one sound that is significantly louder or sharper than surrounding ambient sounds. This is jarring for someone trying to fall asleep. For example, if there are 20 quiet lapping waves, a loud 20th wave can jar you awake every 10 to 15 seconds.

Nonetheless, a few of the sound loops in Ambiance and aSleep were relaxing and did help me fall asleep. Since aSleep has slightly more sound loops that met my criteria, I tentatively recommend it over Ambiance and White Noise – but see my note about bugs in version 2.0 of the software. All of these apps can be improved and I make some suggestions below. More than anything else, I would like these apps to provide far fewer, but much longer (10 minutes at least), restful, non-repeating, non-jarring, ambient sound loops.

I do also want to note here that many of the sounds that were not helpful in falling asleep were enjoyable background sounds while working at my computer or doing other things. So, if you are looking for an app for relaxation purposes only, I would recommend White Noise over the other three because it has the most polished interface.

White Noise:  v 1.1 (99¢) 19.0 MB – 22 sounds

  (2/5)

White Noise, by TMSoft, was the first of the three that I tried. As the small 19.0 MB size belies, each of White Noise’s 22 sound tracks (and those of its competitors) are only about 10 seconds long before they repeat. While the interface is the nicest of the three, far from southing me to sleep, every one of the looping sound snippets either grated on my nerves or contained jarring sounds that kept waking me up. Rather than being soothed, my mind focused on the jarring or repetitious nature of the sounds. The clock sound, for example, has only four tic-tocs before it repeats. Each fourth, eighth etc. tic has the same jarring “click click” sound between that tic and the next toc.

Interface: Despite being the weakest of the three with regard to available sound loops (none met my basic criteria), it did have the best interface. As you can see from the picture, you can choose 8 of your favourite sounds to be featured on the home screen. Unlike Ambiance and aSleep, it remembers your prior volume level, preferred timer length and last playing sound. Unlike the other two, when the app starts up it immediately starts playing your last preferred sound, at your preferred volume for the preferred time. Exactly as you’d expect.

Conclusion: Grr! Great idea. If some of the sounds were even just 5 minute loops, for example, this product would be much improved. For someone with a hyperactive, detailed-oriented mind like mine, this will app, as pretty and functional as it is, will probably not help you fall asleep.  

Ambiance:  v. 1.4 – (99¢) 144 MB – 44 sounds

  (2.5/5)

Next I tried Ambiance by Matt Coneybeare. It is fundamentally the same application as White Noise with a different interface and slightly better sound quality.

I had hoped that since Ambiance is 8 times the size of White Noise that it would have significantly longer loops. Turns out, for the most part it doesn’t. The larger size mostly reflects a much longer list of sounds – 44 compared to White Noise’s 22.

I’ll describe some of the specific issues I had with some of the loops (I had similar problems with ALL the sound loops in White Noise):

• Birds: was great, but useless, because while the birds were generally really nice and relaxing, every 10 seconds the loop started over and one particularly shrill bird kept waking me up.
• Coast: I loved it too. Waves crashing on a distant shore. Very relaxing – except a darn loud bird pipes in every 15 seconds waking me up.
• Creek: If only they made this one 5 minutes long. It’s a 10 second loop that you can clearly hear repeating over and over – grating on my  nerves with each loop.
• Crickets and Frogs: Same thing – repeating 10 second loops. All my mind can focus on is the repeating patterns.
• Fire Big – Fire Small: Again, each of these were lovely sounds, but were ultimately VERY short loops grating on my nerves. Give us at least 5 or 10 minutes guys!
• Sailboat: I so wanted this one to work. One of the most relaxing sounds I know is water gurgling on a boat (reminds me of fishing with my father). But, the jarring sound of the slapping of the sails combined with the short loop repeating, made this one a non-starter.
• Subway and Train: Again each of these are promising and would be nice if the were longer and didn’t have jarring isolated sounds. I’d like a pure, consistent click, clack, click clack … subway or train sound without jarring side noises.
• Swamp: As with Frogs and Crickets, I love this sound. It reminds me of youthful nights at my family’s cottage. The short loop probably would have been OK with me on this one but for the shrill bird that keeps chiming in and waking me up every 10 to 15 seconds.
• Waves: Loved it just like Coast except this time the microphone is too close to the water and ever third or fourth wave is too loud. Sounds like its crashing around me – waking me up.

That’s enough. You get the idea. Otherwise promising sounds are compromised by either: (i) being way too short with repeating patterns; (ii) having jarring sounds mixed in with tranquil sounds; or (iii) both.

One Useful Loop: One sound loop actually worked and helped me fall asleep:

• “Rain – Porch” I found “Rain – Porch” only after a half hour of frustration with most of the other sound loops. It sounds like the name, rain falling while sitting on a porch.

Honourable Mention: Two others deserve honourable mention (but I won’t be using them personally):

• Clock: Unlike the White Noise clock, this clock is just tic’ing and toc’ing, uniformly without annoying and jarring oddities. Though it’s not ‘my type of clock sound’. I can think of more southing clock sounds – like the pendulum from a grand-father clock. That would be nice.
• Stream: Unlike Creek (described above), Stream has a less identifiable loop. It’s on the cusp of usability for falling asleep.

Interface: I liked the scrolly-wheel to select from available sounds. You can pause/stop sounds (something not possible in White Noise). You can permanently delete sounds and customize what sounds appear on the main page. When you start the program, Ambiance remembers what sound you were last using and what your timer and volume settings are. However, Ambiance’s timer and other controls are on separate pages making some of the basic settings functionality a bit more inconvenient than White Noise.

Conclusion: The interface is slightly less nice than White Noise or aSleep. Because it had one useful sound and two honourable mentions, where White Noise had none, I give it a better score than White Noise. But I gave it a lower score than aSleep because aSleep had more useful sound loops for falling asleep.

aSleep:  v. 2.0 – (99¢) 172 MB – 50 sounds

  (3/5) * but see notes below

Finally I tried the aptly-named aSleep by Matt Sign Studios (click here for direct link to iTunes App Store).

Out of the 50 available sounds, aSleep has three loop sounds that I found useful for helping me fall asleep.  These sound loops are both soothing and contain no noticeable repetitions or jarring sounds to wake me up.  The winning loops are:

• Nature: Beach
• Nature: Forest
• Nature: Rain

The sound quality also seems a bit better than ambiance and definitely better than White Noise. But, this is subjective and I can’t be certain. 

There are 47 other sounds useless for falling asleep – at least for me. All the music sounds are, by definition, quickly repetitious and fall into the broken record group – ugh!  The scuba and fog  horn sounds would/could be great if they were longer, not repetitious, and in the case of the fog horn, sounded more realistic. Even though not useful for falling asleep, several of the sounds would be nice for background sounds while working.

Interface: The aSleep interface is less useful than the other two. You cannot change sounds from the front page. You cannot change the timer from the front page (as you can in White Noise). Version 2.0 of the app is quite buggy, as I discuss next.

Several Software Bugs: For this review I used version 2.0 of the aSleep App which is chock-a-block full of technical interface glitches. The developer’s web site says that version 2.5 (which is supposed to solve many of these problems) has been pending Apple approval for a couple weeks now. My review score assumes these bug fixes are made in version 2.5. If version 2.5 does not solve these glitches, or does not come out soon, I cannot recommend the program.  I’ll report back when/if version 2.5 comes out.

The version 2.0 problems include:

• Doesn’t Remember Settings: It does not remember the last settings you used. Every time (each night) you use the app, you need to first find the sound you want from the sample list, set the timer, set the volume and press play. EVERY DARN TIME. It should remember all this for you. Each night it should just start playing with your prior settings when you start.

  [Version 2.5 Update: It now remembers the timer length and the last sound played. It does not remember your volume level and it does not automatically start the sound or timer when you start up. You have to manually start each, each time.]

• Sampling Sounds Stop/Start Issue: In White Noise and Ambiance you can jump quickly from sound to sound by tapping on the sound name. In asleep, you have to go to a separate screen, pick the next sound you want to try, stop the currently playing sound, then start the new sound. This is daft. Tapping on a sound should just start playing the sound instantly.

  [Version 2.5 Update: Issue remains in version 2.5.]

• Volume Issue: As I switch from sound to sound, my volume level changes back to the default volume level – even if I just changed the volume. Daft.

  [Version 2.5 Update: Issue remains in version 2.5.]

• Scrolly Wheel Screen Bug: If I access the sound selection screen after starting the timer (ie: if I want to change the sound midway through), the scrolly wheel with the sounds doesn’t appear. I have to restart the program to make it work.

  [Version 2.5 Update: This bug remains in version 2.5.]

• Timer Bug: If you set the timer just once, it seems to work OK. If, in any given use, you change the timer count down, it often won’t accept the change. The only solution, reboot and start again.

[Version 2.5 Update: Resolved in version 2.5.]

• English as a Second Language: This is a tiny detail but you quickly learn that English is not the native language of the developers. They should at least run the app by a native English speaker to clean up the obvious typos and grammar mistakes.

  [Version 2.5 Update: Issue remains in version 2.5. Plus the fine print on the main screen is impossible to read with my aging eyes. Even with glasses on its almost impossible to read. But this is no big deal. The controls are pretty obvious.]

Conclusion: It is only because this app has the highest number of useful sound loops for falling asleep and my perceived notion that the sound quality is slightly better than Ambiance (and much better than White Noise) that I give it a higher score than the other two similar apps. If, however, version 2.5 of the aSleep App isn’t out soon, my score would be a tie (at 2.5/5) between aSleep and Ambiance.

Suggestions for Future Updates

Here are a few suggestions for features I’d like to see implemented in future releases of these apps:

• Longer Loops: All of these apps need longer sound loops to get rid of my number one problem with all three of these apps – repeating sound patterns in short sound loops sounding like broken records. At a minimum the loops should be 5 minutes or so – and certainly not 5 or 10 seconds like most of them are.
• Even-Keeled Sounds: Too many sound loops that were otherwise wonderful were ruined by the occasional jarring sound of a bird, or a crashing wave etc. amidst an otherwise calm track. Each jarring sound wakes me back up.
• Pause: Only Ambiance has a button to pause/stop sounds on the main screen. You’d think this would be a basic function in any sound-related app.
• Play through iTunes: It would be nice if these applications would work with iTunes somehow so I could play the ambiance through my PC speakers. It would be nice to have ocean-surf sounds playing as I work. The repetitive nature of many of the sound loops don’t seem to bother me when awake as they do when trying to fall asleep.
• Playback while using iPhone: Just like iTunes, I’d like to have the ability to have the sound loops playing while doing other things on the iPhone. As it is, all three apps shut off as soon as you try doing something else on the iPhone (this may, however, be an Apple-imposed limitation).
• Use My Own Tracks: I have some very nice nature music and ambient sound mp3s that I’ve collected over the years. Hour long .mp3s of ocean surf, for example. Since these mp3s are already on my iPhone, I’d like to be able to play them back through these apps and have the timers slowly lower the volume on them as they finish. (This too may be an Apple-imposed limitation).
• Ability to Delete Unwanted Sounds: If I don’t like a sound, I should be able to delete it from the list so I’m left with just the sounds I like. Ambiance is the only one of the three that has this functionality. This will be even more important over time as the number of sounds, most of which are useless to me, grow.
• Shut off for SMS, Email and iPhone Ringers: There’s nothing more frustrating than to be drifting off to sleep and to have an SMS or email notifier sound or the iPhone ring blasting in your ears. Each of these apps should have a toggle switch or other option to turn SMS, email and iPhone notifiers/ringers off! But, Apple may also not permit this.

Now I Need Bedside iPhone Recharger-Speakers

While ear-buds work for 15 minutes or so, they get painful when crushed between the ear and the pillow. I’ve tried larger head-sets in the past but can’t fall asleep when my head is forced to stay in the upward position. I’m now looking for an iPhone beside recharging stand with an alarm clock and quality speakers built in. I looked at some at Best Buy and none seemed exactly what I’m after. If you have a recommendation, please leave it in the comments.

Conclusion

Of these three, asleep (assuming its technical difficulties are fixed in version 2.5) is my favourite because it has the largest number of sound loops that I found soothing enough to help me fall asleep. As noted, each of them has significant room for improvement. Over the last few months they have all come out with newer versions so it seems likely that improvements will continue to be made. It’s nice to see that competition is strong in the iPhone relaxation/sleep app market!

Tim Russert

I was saddened to hear of Tim’s passing last Friday. I’ve been watching the bountiful tributes with misty eyes. I respected his intelligence, preparation, passion for what he did, his omnipresent big smile, good humour and down-home humanity.

Tim’s relationship with is father, Big Russ, was inspiring. When he announced his book, Wisdom of our Fathers, I purchased a copy to give to my dad on father’s day. I used the page included in the book to write a bit about what my father meant to me. My dad liked that.

During every U.S. primary, caucus or election night, I would be keenly interested in what Tim had to say. I never found myself disagreeing with him. I don’t remember a partisan moment. If he said it, I took it very seriously.

It’s Sunday morning as I write this. Tom Brokaw is doing a tribute show for Tim in the background. I have never watched Meet the Press under another moderator. He helped to keep me informed. Sunday morning won’t be the same without him.  His chair will be tough to fill.

Click to watch interview with Tim’s son Luke.

Safina played well, but not well enough. Not unlike her brother, her emotions too often got in the way. In her round of 16 and quarterfinal matches against Dementieva and Kuznetsova, she had come back from being a set and match-point down to prevail. Ivanovic was too good for this to work a third time.

Ivanovic’s shots were strong and accurate. She played one of her best-ever matches, convincingly solid and steady throughout. She didn’t show any of the nervousness that kept her from winning the final against Sharapova at the 2008 Aussie Open and the final against Henin at the 2007 French Open. She’s come a long way from learning tennis in a war-torn Belgrade swimming pool.

This makes the seventh straight women’s French Open final that was won in straight sets. The last three-set women’s final was at the 2001 French Open – where Jennifer Capriati defeated Kim Clijsters.

Gone Too Soon

Justine Henin sat in the audience and watched the final. She surprised everyone by announcing her early retirement just two weeks before the start of the 2008 French Open.

Henin won 4 of the last 5 French Opens. Five years ago both she and fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters were playing in this final. Now they are both retired. As Tim Robinson aptly asked, can you imagine seeing Nadal just sitting there and watching next year?

Nonetheless, it was touching to see her congratulating the winners and handing out the trophies – particularly since Safina beat Henin in her final professional match just a few weeks ago in Berlin.

Fitness Making the Difference

One of my complaints about the women’s game is that too few women’s players take fitness and conditioning as serious as the men’s field. As you can see from the photos below, this was not the case for either of Ivanovic or Safina today. No doubt their fitness played a significant part in their getting so far.

These pictures aptly demonstrate that women can be fit and feminine at the same time. I hope more of the women follow this lead. The women’s game needs to be elevated with better fitness, conditioning and stamina in order to be as compelling to watch as the men’s game. Ivanovic and Safina have proven it can be done.

As Barack was about to make his Democratic nomination victory speech, Michelle looked at him, fist-bumped, smiled a huge smile and gave him the thumbs up.

There is something awfully wonderful about this picture. In a flash you see a couple that is truly in love. Truly supportive of each other. Terrific.

Shortly thereafter I found myself in the emergency room at Toronto’s Saint Michael’s teaching hospital getting nine stitches. I felt as though I was a patient on the television show ER. The med student that stitched me up did a terrific job with absolutely no pain. My thanks go out to the med student and the supervising doctor for a terrific job.

The injury has resulted in almost constant sharp pain, has inhibited my ability to use my computer for work or play and prevented me from: 1) completing the GTA IV campaign; 2) continuing my GTA IV diary entries; and 3) blogging as much as I would have liked to. Indeed, it’s astonishing how much I cannot do while attempting to safeguard my left hand as my finger heals.

On the upside, the injury has resulted in my having a practical need to test and use, on a sustained basis, the Windows Speech Recognition software built into Vista. In fact, I have written this blog post almost entirely through voice dictation. I’m keeping notes and expect to write a future post on my Vista voice recognition experiences. [June 3, 2009 Update: I never did write that post as typing / and controlling Windows by voice is still not practical for the able bodied typist]

I can’t feel anything above the cut to the tip of my finger on the inside. But both the emergency room doctor and my family doctor believe that the nerves will reconnect themselves within about two months giving me full feeling back.

As is normal with most any emergency room, I had to wait about 2 hours before I was served. I wasn’t happy that the emergency room doctor was unwilling to prescribe pain medication for me. I only asked for a day or two’s worth of pain pills but it seems like Canadian hospitals are required to treat regular patients as if they are drug addicts seeking their latest fix. Despite her assurances, over-the-counter Motrin, alone, was not enough.

Nonetheless, I was very happy with my treatment. Despite its problems, I still consider the Canadian health care system to be amongst the best in the world. The visits to the hospital and my family doctor cost me nothing and the treatment I received was first rate. I do not believe that American politicians and population truly understand how the Canadian system works when they criticize it as a socialized medicine that takes choice way from the patient. I much prefer it, warts and all, over the American System, with its 40,000,000 people either uninsured or underinsured.

I found this sautéed squash recipe on the curiously ravenous blog. I adapted it for the ingredients I had at hand and cooked it up.  (click thumbnail on the left for a bigger picture of the result)

Peeling and cutting up the acorn squash was the toughest part. Once that was done it took me 10 minutes cook this delicious dish.

Ingredients:

• one acorn squash
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 packet OXO chicken broth packet(10 calories) – or vegetable stock
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• extra light olive oil, for frying

I think next time I might add some chopped onions and add only half a packet of OXO chicken broth – or stir-fry with real chicken pieces.

Instructions:

• Peel the squash (not easy! – see here – slice and peel, and here – boil 15 minutes and peel, for peeling tips)
• Open, remove the seeds and cut up into 1 inch squares
• Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a wok over high heat
• Add the squash and stirfry vigorously to coat all sides with oil to lightly sear
• Add in the garlic, salt, pepper, water and OXO broth packet (or vegetable stock).
• Stir to combine.
• Cover the wok with a tight lid, and cook for about 10 minutes until they reach a baked sweat potato consistency – if you cook too long it gets too soft and creamy
• Serve hot

Easy to make, light and tasty.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups thinly-sliced chilled cucumbers (I use one long and skinny cucumber)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup thinly-sliced fresh onions (50% ratio to cucumbers)
• 1/4 cup dill pickle juice (or 1/4 cup vinegar)
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 tablespoon sugar (or a 1 packet of sugar substitute)
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• cherry tomatoes to taste (optional)

Instructions:

• Mix cucumber slices and onions in a medium-size bowl
• sprinkle with salt.
• Mix remaining ingredients (except tomatoes) together in a measuring cup or bowl.
• Pour over cucumbers and onions and toss lightly.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Add cherry tomatoes
• Stir and serve

My chilled cucumber salad recipe was adapted from this recipe found at cd kitchen.

1. Cooking with a Teflon Wok: Until recently I didn’t cook at all. It struck me that cooking with a wok might be easy and fun.  Last Christmas I purchased a Teflon wok for use on the stove-top. I’ve used it almost every day since. It’s turned out to be fun, easy and quick to clean.
2. Eating From Michi’s Ladder: As part of my P90X training, I was introduced Michi’s Ladder. The ladder consists of 5 tiers of foods. The goal is to eat as much from the top two tiers and as little from the bottom tiers as possible.

In the last few months I’ve eaten, and enjoyed, more vegetable dishes than I have in the last decade.

Going forward I’m looking for and experimenting with tasty, easy to wok recipes for the food listed in the top two tiers of Michi’s Ladder.

I’ll kick things off with my latest recipes for a chilled cucumber salad and my sautéed squash in a wok.

In December 2006 I decided (for the final time) to get fit and stay fit. For the prior decade my weight had yoyo’d within a 30 pound range.

In order to loose weight and keep it off forever I personally committed to making two fundamentally integrated life-long changes:

1. Regular Workouts: I needed to first loose 40 pounds (to get to my goal weight) and thereafter maintain and and improve upon the weight loss and fitness with a lifetime of fun and sustainable physical activity.
   (Note: I reached the weight goal in 90 days with P90X)
2. Healthy Eating: I needed to find ways that worked for me (the single geek) to match my initial weight loosing workout regime and then, for the first time in my adult life, to consistently eat right, and enjoy it, for the rest of my life.

For me, the far harder of the two was, and remains, healthy eating. This post summarizes the calorie reduced eating strategies that worked for me as I lost those first forty pounds.

Note: I will cover some of my ongoing healthy eating ideas in future posts.

On January 1, 2007, I started the P90X classic fitness program and had remarkable success. While I followed the fitness program to the letter, I must confess, I didn’t generally follow the diet plan other than to limit calorie intake to 1,800 calories or less a day. I was proud of the fact that I hadn’t turned on an oven in in some 24 years. Cooking is difficult for me.

Nonetheless I did alter my eating patterns to dovetail with the workouts and healthfully lower my calorie intake as best I could. In the p90x forums, last November, I summarized the dietary steps I took during the 90 day workout program and I summarize them below.

• Calorie Focus: Rather than preparing specific meals and balancing my carb, fat and protein intake (way beyond my abilities at that time), I focused primarily on ingesting 1800 or fewer calories a day. I didn’t make a single recipe in the recipe book. I don’t cook.
• Ballparking Calories: I didn’t count calories to the decimal point or track them on a spreadsheet. Rather I kept a ballpark tally of my daily calorie intake in my head and try to limit the to 1,800 a day. There are about 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat. As I learned how much work was involved in loosing those 3,500 calories, it became easier to walk away from empty calories. For each 1,000 calories I didn’t eat, that’s one less hour’s intense workout I had to do.
• Loss of Appetite: The intensity of the P90x program helped a lot. The extreme workouts frequently tied my stomach up in knots, substantially decreasing my appetite.
• Purged Kitchen: I went through your kitchen and tossed out EVERYTHING that contained nothing more than empty calories. I was ruthless. I threw away all comfort food (realizing that when I needed to cheat, and I did, it was available at the nearest convenience store) .
• Filled Kitchen: with my favourite fruits and vegetables – especially the more expensive fruit I normally hadn’t purchased and considered a “treat” or a luxury. For me it was blueberries, cherries, asparagus and Fuji apples. Snacking on healthy, luxury foods made it easier to take the fact that I couldn’t eat the unhealthy food I used to eat.
• Grilled Chicken Instead of Hamburgers: I still ate at restaurants most every day (I don’t any more). Grilled chicken sandwiches were my friend. Most fast food restaurants have them. Rather than fries on the side, I got chili (very low in calories) salad or baked potato (I ate only half the sour creme)
• Wendy’s Salads: I ate a Wendy’s salad (the cranberry chicken salad was available then) almost every day of my P90x program. Yes, the dressings have lots of calories. So, tried to limit myself to 75% or half the usual dressing. Heck, eating a salad with all the dressing is better than a greasy burger and fries.
• Milk: I drank milk instead of soda.
• Restaurant Nutrition Guides: I asked for the nutrition guides at the restaurants I frequented. Most have them. I tried to pick the low calorie/fat items and avoided the high calorie/fat items. Simple as that.
• Read the Label: When grocery shopping I read the calorie and fat content on the back of EVERYTHING. I’m just an average guy and not a nutrition expert. But as I became aware of what calories were in what, I discovered lots of things I ate that were REALLY fattening that I didn’t particularly love and other things I liked more that had fewer calories.
• Biggest Loser: I started watching the “Biggest Loser” and similar shows for inspiration and tips. I TiVo them and watch them while on the treadmill.
• I Didn’t Starve Myself: This was one of the harder lessons for me. In the past when I tried to loose weight I frequently ate too little. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that to loose weight I NEEDED to consume a significant quantity of healthy calories. Eating too little causes the body’s metabolism to slow down and preserve energy – resulting in little or no weight loss.
• Eliminated ALL Fried Foods and foods cooked in oil. Can you say French Fries?
• I Spent Money: that I normally wouldn’t on quality lower calorie food, meals and snacks that I liked. I treated myself – instead of that bag of potato chips I’d buy a nutritious gourmet sandwich.
• Social Events: While I had the occasional glass of wine, I used the old recovering alcoholic tricks to minimize social pressure to drink. I put Perrier in a wine glass. Or I just held a drink all night. It’s hard to refuse drinks from friends. But if you are just holding it, or drinking Perrier instead, nobody will know. There will always be a potted plant or sink you can slowly dump it out in. Alcohol = calories.
• Measured My Cream: I drink two coffees every day. To reduce the cream I put in I measured it. I discovered that when I just pour creme or sugar into my coffee, I’d often pour in a lot more than what I really wanted/needed for a good cup of coffee. Two cups a day times 90 days makes a lot of calories from cream and sugar that can be reduced. In my case I switched to a sugar substitute years ago.
• Worked Out Just Before I Got Hungry: I schedule my workouts a half hour before I usually get hungry. For me, the best time of day to do my workouts is around 5:00 pm. I’m just about ready for dinner. When I work out through the dinner hour, and work out hard, not only does it delay my feeding at the trough, but I ate less at the later dinner because after a hard workout my stomach was usually tied up in knots decreasing my appetite.
• Rice Crisps/Crackers: They come in lots of flavours. I ate a lot of them – especially to curb bed-time munchies.
• Popcorn: Lots of plain or lightly salted popcorn. It fills you up and is low on calories. I sprinkled a little vinegar on them for a salt and vinegar flavours. There are no calories in regular vinegar.
• Nutrition Bars: I ate a lot of the P90x nutrition bars – berry flavour. Yes, they are expensive, but they are better than other junk food and include the nutrients/proteins etc. you’ll need. I ate them as snacks. They satisfy my sweet tooth. I rarely ate more than one a day though.
• Nabisco 100 Calorie Snack Packs: Take them with you when you go to a movie or for an afternoon snack at work.
• Pickles and Mustard: were my friends – each have very few calories. I put them on all my sandwiches
• Lemon Juice: Instead of butter on your vegetables or fish, use lemon juice. Lemon Juice and vinegar are your calorie-free friends.
• Perrier: was my friend. Drink, drink, drink lots of your favourite water. I consider Perrier a treat. So I drank it constantly instead of soda, beer, wine. Lost of water is important for many reasons and keeps your tummy full.
• Use Tall/Skinny Wine Glasses: As silly as this sounds, replace your short fat wine glasses with tall skinny ones. The same level of wine in a tall skinny glass is significantly less wine than the same level in a short fat one. Hey, if it works!
• Supplements: I used the P90X supplement horse-pills. I hate swallowing pills, but hey, they seemed to work. I always had the energy and whatever else I needed for the stamina to get through it all. I also drank the P90X recovery drink after the intense workouts. Again, this is all expensive stuff, but was worth it to loose 40 pounds. It tastes really good.
• Spice Rack: My sister gave me a spice rack a decade ago that I had never used. During P90X, instead of lathering on the mayonnaise or the cheese or the butter (or list fattening topping here), I discovered that a pinch of sage or a little oregano, dill seed or crushed red pepper made wonderful alternatives to fattening condiments.
• V8 instead of soda (heck, anything over a soda). It also makes those horse pill supplements go down easier.
• Sleep: I got as much sleep as I could – muscles need sleep for recovery after intense workouts.
• Advil for Muscle Ache: Initially I found it very hard to sleep because my muscles were so sore in the first month. Someone suggested that I take an Advil or Motrin before bed. It worked.
• Missing a Workout or Eating Poorly: I missed several workout days and fell of the healthy eating wagon with the odd bag of chips or tub of Ben & Jerry’s. I tried not to beat myself up and just got back with the program when I could. One of the P90X mottos is “Do your best and forget the rest”. We all need breaks and life intervenes. The key is getting back into it and not letting a few off days turn into failure.

In order to sustain my weight loss, I’ve since began learning to cook (primarily cooking with a wok) healthy and enjoyable meals. Look for healthy cooking posts in the future.

I have been watching The Charlie Rose Show for more than a decade (searchable archive here).  He has interviewed everyone – world leaders, dictators, actors, singers, scientists, doctors, architects, authors, journalists, bloggers, judges, lawyers, titans of industry, philosophers, religious leaders – from every walk of life and pursuit.

He is the most balanced and engaging interviewer I know. His ability to draw out guests and provide a compelling viewing experience is renowned. Over the years, I have jotted down some of the Charlie Rose questions that have yielded compelling answers.

If you really want to get to know someone, try out some of these questions over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.  I have had hours of interesting conversation with friends and family with these.

WARNING: Use them sparingly. If you fire them off at an unsuspecting questionee, you may find your friend feeling more like the victim of an inquisition than the participant in an intimate conversation!

Below then, in no particular order, are the “Charlie Rose Questions” I’ve collected:

• Of all the people you admire what qualities do they share?
• Has your success caused you to loose relationships with people?
• What do you worry about most?
• What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year?
• What were the defining influences that made you, you?
• What is the best advice you’ve ever got? – Ray Romano
• Define who you see yourself, what’s your self image? – Pierre Elliot Trudeau
• Who do you admire?
• Who are your roll models?
• Who has had the biggest influence on you? – Aaron Sorkin
• What makes you tick?
• What worries you the most?
• What excites you the most?
• What are you most proud of?
• When you dream your dreams what do you dream, personally, for the world?
• What/Who has most influence your political/moral thought?
• What was your most satisfying/biggest achievement?
• How do you define success?
• What was your best moment
• What are you proudest of?
• How have you changed, why?
• What is the one thing that you don’t know that you want to know?
• What do you miss the most?
• What is your greatest regret?
• What’s the greatest misperception about you?
• What do you worry about – personally, professionally, for world?
• What’s essential to know to understand you? – Mr. Rogers
• What do you know now that you didn’t know…   – Gus Van Sant
• If you were giving one last lecture about the way to live a life and make a contribution, what would you say?
• Who’s the smartest person you ever met? – Jonathan Zittrain

It’s surprisingly difficult to find ‘dishwasher safe’ wine glasses. Instead, I found a host of wine-glass-in-dishwasher solutions like this one and this one. These  products amount to little more than fancy ways to ensure that wine glasses are secured so that they do not bounce around (or into each other) during the wash cycle.

Knowing that the probability of my family actually granting such a Frasier-esque wishhh was low (shopping online still being a familial novelty for most), it occurred to me that securing wine glasses by the stem with an everyday elastic band might just do the trick.

I was right. In 10+ rounds of wineglass dishwashing since, I haven’t lost a wineglass to this method yet. Hitherto my elastic band solution, I’d loose a glass or two during most every wash cycle.

This works for two wine glasses or 8. The elastic must be tight enough to keep the glasses securely lashed to each other so they do not move around. When only one glass needs cleaning, I secure it to another dish in the same way or I wash it by hand.

Maybe someday I’ll purchase one of these. Ha! In the mean time, my elastic band work just fine.

Ingredients:

• soup bones
• 1/2 an onion
• salt / pepper
• few carrots and celery
• 2 Tbsp flower
• 2 large eggs
• maggie seasoning
• parsley

Instructions:

• Boil soup bones and add 1/2 an onion and salt and pepper.
• Keep boiling slowly 2 to 3 hours if possible.
• Add a few cut-up carrots and celery about 15 minutes before eating time
• Mix 2 tablespoons flour and 2 large eggs into a little bowl.
• Pour this mixture slowly into boiling stock and as you ‘pour’, stir with a fork quite fast so that this dough mixture breaks up into a lot of tiny little pieces.
• This only actually needs to simmer about 5 minutes to be fully cooked.
• Add some Maggie seasoning towards the end, (few drops) and perhaps some parsley.

• small chicken
• salt, pepper
• onion
• few carrots and celery
• store bought noodles

[Question to Dietrich Family: What kind of noodles?]

Instructions

• Boil a small chicken an hour or so.
• Don’t boil on a high heat — just enough to keep it bubbling.
• While chicken is cooking, add salt, pepper and onion to it somewhere along the line
• Chicken can be put on a something in oven to keep warm
• Then you just add a few cut-up carrots, celery.
• Boil store bought noodles in separate water — drain water into sink and add noodles to broth.

That’s it. If you want you could make homemade noodles.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flower

Instructions

• Mix eggs, water and salt well.
• Add Flour and kneed well.
• Roll out with a rolling pin.
• Shape into a roll and cut into the roll to make strips of desired width.

If you make more than you need, dry well and store in jar, plastic bag or freeze.

Six hours ideally. 1 to 1.5 hours minimally.

Ingredients

• 3-4 pound chicken
• salt
• pepper
• onion
• dressing/stuffing optional

Instructions

• Wash chicken quickly and make sure all insides have been taken out.
• Add salt, pepper and onion and put into a greased oven dish.
• Cook in a slow oven.
• Roasts and fowl should cook at 300 degrees (at least) for 1st half hr to kill any bacteria that could be present
• Lower to just below 300 degrees for at least six hours — makes it very tender and juicy.
• You could cook faster at 350 degrees for 1 to 1.5 hours if necessary.

If you want to add dressing [stuffing], the method is the same, but mix dressing and fill chicken’s cavity before cooking.